C# Serialization and properties

Question

I have a kind of foreignkey implementation, so that my class has a field that is a reference to another object, and then it has a property that fetches the other object on demand:

[Serializable]
public class MyClass {
    private string otherId;
    public SomeClass Other {
        get { return SomeClass.GetById(otherId); }
        set { otherId = value.id; }
    }
}

Now, can anyone please explain what happens when I serialize/deserialize this class using C# default serialization (I'd like to understand both binary and XML serialization please)

Answer 1

The simple answer is that the serializer, regardless of the target format, is going to call your getter and then serialize the Other property as SomeClass . Whether that is going to throw an exception or not depends on what SomeClass.GetById actually does.

SomeClass is implied as serializable because it is a property of a serializable object.

Answer 2

Both otherId and Other members will be serialized/deserialized.

To stop Other property from being serialized, you can use [IgnoreDataMember] attribute on that property.