Can my class be serialized?

A common question asked is how do you determine if a class can be serialized? My answer is - serialize the class and then determine.

A common misconception is that if the class has the [Serializable] attribute, it can be serialized. This may or may not be the case. If any one of the fields in the class cannot be serialized, the serialization of the class fails.

If you would like to programmatically determine if a class can probably be serialized, use the following code. The code determines if the class Employee can be serialized or not:

C#

        Employee emp = new Employee();

        if (emp.GetType().IsSerializable)

        {

            Response.Write(emp.GetType().ToString() + " can probably be serialized");

        }

        else

        {

            Response.Write(emp.GetType().ToString() + " cannot be serialized");

        }

VB.NET

Dim emp As New Employee()

If emp.GetType().IsSerializable Then

    Response.Write(emp.GetType().ToString() & " can probably be serialized")

Else

    Response.Write(emp.GetType().ToString() & " cannot be serialized")

End If

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About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, ASP.NET Architecture MVP works as an Architect Consultant and provides consultancy on how to design and develop Web applications.

Suprotim is also the founder and primary contributor to DevCurry, DotNetCurry and SQLServerCurry. He has also written an EBook 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls.

Follow him on twitter @suprotimagarwal