C# Partial deserialization

Question

So I have an xml that has a similar structure to this:

<MyObject>
    <PropertyA>Value</PropertyA>
    <PropertyB>Value</PropertyB>
    <PropertyC>Value</PropertyC>
    <ArrayOfOtherObject>
        <OtherObject>
            <PropertyX>Value</PropertyX>
            <PropertyY>Value</PropertyY>
            <PropertyZ>Value</PropertyZ>
        </OtherObject>
        <OtherObject>
            <PropertyX>Value</PropertyX>
            <PropertyY>Value</PropertyY>
            <PropertyZ>Value</PropertyZ>
        </OtherObject>
        <OtherObject>
            <PropertyX>Value</PropertyX>
            <PropertyY>Value</PropertyY>
            <PropertyZ>Value</PropertyZ>
        </OtherObject>
    </ArrayOfOtherObject>
</MyObject>

Is there a way that I can deserialize MyObject but not the ArrayOfOtherObject? And then later on do a lazy load of ArrayOfOtherObject when needed?

I usually use XmlDeserialization, but AFAIK it always loads the whole thing.

To be honest, unless the data volume is huge you would be better off going for the simplest approach, and deserialize it all. — Marc Gravell
– Marc Gravell, Commented Oct 15, 2009 at 15:39

Glorfindel · Accepted Answer · 2023-01-18 15:34:09Z

2

You can use special constructor which is recognized by binary deserialization functionality:

protected MyObject(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
{
//here some elements you can load right now, and some other to store in so-to-say string in order to load later
}

In case of XML - here is an example of custom serialization: Link

edited Jan 18, 2023 at 15:34

Glorfindel

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answered Oct 15, 2009 at 15:12

Vitaliy Liptchinsky

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4 Comments

Marc Gravell Over a year ago

Isn't that BinaryFormetter? xml is typically IXmlSerializable, which looks very different.

Vitaliy Liptchinsky Over a year ago

Yes, Mark, you are right but IXmlSerializable can also easily be extended through ReadXml method.

Carlo Over a year ago

So how would I go about this? I'm really noob with this, since I've only done the regular deserialization (deserialize entire object) and only used XmlIgnore. I searched on the MSDN how to use this but it was rather complicated and could not getting to work (sometimes I hate MSDN for their overly complicated examples).

Vitaliy Liptchinsky Over a year ago

Here is an example of custom serialization: geekswithblogs.net/marcel/archive/2006/05/19/78989.aspx

PabloC · Accepted Answer · 2009-10-15 15:26:40Z

0

Are you talking about deserializing the xml as it is parsed so that you don't have to load the entire xml file into memory, or deserializing it as you try to access the concrete object?

It might help to look at an implementation of SAX as opposed to DOM:

http://www.saxproject.org/

answered Oct 15, 2009 at 15:26

PabloC

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2 Comments

Carlo Over a year ago

I need to deserialize the MyObject but not the ArrayOfOtherObject. And later on if requested by the user, I'll need to load the ArrayOfOtherObject, but initially only the MyObject.

PabloC Over a year ago

Another thought is that an RDBMS would be better suited to storing and retrieving this data in the manner you require. You could import this data in to a relational database and then query it using LINQ to SQL for example (which uses lazy loading as I recall).

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