about understanding serialization and the serializable attribute

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony Johansson
  • Start date Start date
T

Tony Johansson

Hi!

Assume I have a collection of Person object in generic class list List<T>.
List<Person> myList = new List<Person();
When I want to serialize this collection myList the Person class must have
the serializable attribute.
I know that the List<T> class also has this serializable attribute otherwise
it will not work.

Now to my question what I store is bunch of Persons objects stored in a
collection List<T> but why
must this List<T> class has this serializable attribute.
I don't fully understand that. I can easily understand that the Person class
must have this serializable attribute.

//Tony
 
Tony said:
[...]
Now to my question what I store is bunch of Persons objects stored in a
collection List<T> but why
must this List<T> class has this serializable attribute.
I don't fully understand that. I can easily understand that the Person class
must have this serializable attribute.
Click to expand...

If List<T> was not serializable, how would you expect to serialize it?
 
Peter Duniho said:
Tony said:
[...]
Now to my question what I store is bunch of Persons objects stored in a
collection List<T> but why
must this List<T> class has this serializable attribute.
I don't fully understand that. I can easily understand that the Person
class must have this serializable attribute.
Click to expand...

If List<T> was not serializable, how would you expect to serialize it?
Click to expand...

One more thing is it any advantage to use one over the other between these
two.
IFormatter something = new BinaryFormatter();
or
BinaryFormatter something = new BinaryFormatter();

//Tony
 
Tony said:
One more thing is it any advantage to use one over the other between these
two.
IFormatter something = new BinaryFormatter();
or
BinaryFormatter something = new BinaryFormatter();
Click to expand...

It depends on what you do with it after. If you only ever using the
variable declared as "BinaryFormatter" in places where you really only
need a variable declared as an "IFormatter", then no…there's no
difference. Otherwise, there's a difference.

Pete
 
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