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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