C# binary serialization tries to serialize objects that are not in the scope of the object

Question

I'm trying to serialize an object like this:

public void SaveHighscore()
{
    string fname = Application.loadedLevelName + "_score.dat";
    using (Stream stream = File.Open(fname, FileMode.Create))
    {
        BinaryFormatter bin = new BinaryFormatter();
        bin.Serialize(stream, this);
    }
}

Highscore only has data type members and one object of type Replay, with again only has data type members as well as two lists of serializable objects.

I'm getting

SerializationException: Type GameController is not marked as Serializable.

Gamecontroller is the class that calls object.SaveHighscore(). It's not referenced anywhere within the highscore object itself.

edit: solved. I had an event in the class which was registered by gameController

Answer 1

With the code shown, you are not trying to serialize your highscore anywhere.

By using bin.Serialize(stream, this); , you are serializing the calling class into the stream (because of the this keyword ). Since the current class is GameController , it's trying to serialize it.

You should pass an instance of the highscore you want to save into the method and serialize that instead :

public void SaveHighscore(HighScore highscore)
{
    string fname = Application.loadedLevelName + "_score.dat";
    using (Stream stream = File.Open(fname, FileMode.Create))
    {
        BinaryFormatter bin = new BinaryFormatter();
        bin.Serialize(stream, highscore);
    }
}