I know there were already many discussions on that topic, like this one:
BinaryFormatter and Deserialization Complex objects
but this looks awfully complicated. What I'm looking for is an easier way to serialize and deserialize a generic List of objects into/from one file. This is what I've tried:
public void SaveFile(string fileName)
{
List<object> objects = new List<object>();
// Add all tree nodes
objects.Add(treeView.Nodes.Cast<TreeNode>().ToList());
// Add dictionary (Type: Dictionary<int, Tuple<List<string>, List<string>>>)
objects.Add(dictionary);
using(Stream file = File.Open(fileName, FileMode.Create))
{
BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
bf.Serialize(file, objects);
}
}
public void LoadFile(string fileName)
{
ClearAll();
using(Stream file = File.Open(fileName, FileMode.Open))
{
BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
object obj = bf.Deserialize(file);
// Error: ArgumentNullException in System.Core.dll
TreeNode[] nodeList = (obj as IEnumerable<TreeNode>).ToArray();
treeView.Nodes.AddRange(nodeList);
dictionary = obj as Dictionary<int, Tuple<List<string>, List<string>>>;
}
}
The serialization works, but the deserialization fails with an ArgumentNullException. Does anyone know how to pull the dictionary and the tree nodes out and cast them back, may be with a different approach, but also nice and simple? Thanks!
You have serialized a list of objects where the first item is a list of nodes and the second a dictionary. So when deserializing, you will get the same objects back.
The result from deserializing will be a List<object>
, where the first element is a List<TreeNode>
and the second element a Dictionary<int, Tuple<List<string>, List<string>>>
Something like this:
public static void LoadFile(string fileName)
{
ClearAll();
using(Stream file = File.Open(fileName, FileMode.Open))
{
BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
object obj = bf.Deserialize(file);
var objects = obj as List<object>;
//you may want to run some checks (objects is not null and contains 2 elements for example)
var nodes = objects[0] as List<TreeNode>;
var dictionary = objects[1] as Dictionary<int, Tuple<List<string>,List<string>>>;
//use nodes and dictionary
}
}
You can give it a try on this fiddle.