C# - Serialize and Deserialize using BinaryFormatter with Strings (WITHOUT Files)

This code snippet will allow you to Serialize and DeSerialize any serializable object to a standard string and back. No need for binary files!

Usage:

Code Snippet

1. // Inits
2. CustomClass instance = new CustomClass();
3.  
4. // Serialize
5. string data = SerializeObject<CustomClass>(instance);
6.  
7. // DeSerialize
8. CustomClass instance = DeSerializeObject<CustomClass>(data);

End of Code Snippet

Code Snippet

1. // NOTE: The result of serializing an object with BinaryFormatter is an octet stream, not a string.
2. //       If we encode the serialized object with Base64, we will get our string.
3. public static string SerializeObject<T>(T toSerialize)
4. {
5.     System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter formatter = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
6.  
7.     if (!toSerialize.GetType().IsSerializable)
8.     {
9.         throw new Exception("Object cannot be serialized in it's current state.");
10.     }
11.  
12.     using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
13.     {
14.         new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter().Serialize(ms, toSerialize);
15.         return Convert.ToBase64String(ms.ToArray());
16.     }
17. }
18.  
19. public static T DeSerializeObject<T>(string data)
20. {
21.     byte[] bytes = Convert.FromBase64String(data);
22.  
23.     using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(bytes))
24.     {
25.         return (T)new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter().Deserialize(ms);
26.     }
27. }

End of Code Snippet