Does Serialization Work On Structures?

[Daryll SHatz]

Does serialization work on custom data types via structures?

Dim bFormatter As New BinaryFormatter()
Dim sFile As FileStream = File.Create(FilePath)
Dim structure As myStruct
Dim val1 as Integer
Dim Val2 as String
End Structure
Dim aStruct as myStruct

aStruct.val1 = 123
aStruct.val2 = "some text"

bFormatter.Serialize(sFile, aStruct)
sFile.Close()

Everytime I use serialization on structures I get a PublicKeyToken=null is
not marked as serializable error. I can find much on serialization. Does
the object need some special interface to be serializ-able?

 

[Justin Weinberg]

Yes it does work. Make sure you marked your structure with the
<Serializable()> attribute. This tells the framework your object/structure
is ok to serialize:


<Serializable()> _
Structure foo
Dim val1 As Integer
Dim Val2 As String
End Structure

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim bFormatter As New
Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter
Dim sFile As System.IO.FileStream = System.IO.File.Create("c:\test")
Dim x As foo
x.val1 = 123
x.Val2 = "some text"
bFormatter.Serialize(sFile, x)
sFile.Close()
End Sub



--
Justin Weinberg

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[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Daryll,
As Justin stated, you need to mark the Structure as Serializable as he
demonstrated.

Also the following articles covers every thing you wanted to know about
serialization but were afraid to ask:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/04/net/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/07/net/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/09/net/

Hope this helps
Jay