How to: Deserialize an Object

When you deserialize an object, the transport format determines whether you will create a stream or file object. After the transport format is determined, you can call the Serialize or Deserialize methods, as required.

To deserialize an object

1. Construct a XmlSerializer using the type of the object to deserialize.

2. Call the Deserialize method to produce a replica of the object. When deserializing, you must cast the returned object to the type of the original, as shown in the following example, which deserializes the object into a file (although it could also be deserialized into a stream).

   Dim myObject As MySerializableClass
   ' Construct an instance of the XmlSerializer with the type
   ' of object that is being deserialized.
   Dim mySerializer As XmlSerializer = New XmlSerializer(GetType(MySerializableClass))
   ' To read the file, create a FileStream.
   Dim myFileStream As FileStream = _
   New FileStream("myFileName.xml", FileMode.Open)
   ' Call the Deserialize method and cast to the object type.
   myObject = CType( _
   mySerializer.Deserialize(myFileStream), MySerializableClass)
   

   MySerializableClass myObject;
   // Construct an instance of the XmlSerializer with the type
   // of object that is being deserialized.
   XmlSerializer mySerializer = 
   new XmlSerializer(typeof(MySerializableClass));
   // To read the file, create a FileStream.
   FileStream myFileStream = 
   new FileStream("myFileName.xml", FileMode.Open);
   // Call the Deserialize method and cast to the object type.
   myObject = (MySerializableClass) 
   mySerializer.Deserialize(myFileStream)
   

See Also

Tasks

How to: Serialize an Object

Concepts

Introducing XML Serialization