Saving class instance to file??

[HG]

Hi, I'm wondering if it is possible to save an instance of a class to a file (as is) and vice versa. I have a class that can contain about 2000 ethernet packages. I would like to save this entire class to a file, but also be able to open it again for later use. Something like: MyClass = (MyClassType)FileStream ??? Any ideas?? G

[James T Johnson]

You need to look at something called serialization. Heres a simple example

using System;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatter.Binary;
using System.IO;

[Serializable()]
public class MyClass
{
public int MyInt;
private int privateInt;

public MyClass(int pub, int pri)
{
MyInt = pub;
privateInt = pri;
}

public void PrintOut()
{
Console.WriteLine("MyInt = {0}, privateInt = {1}", MyInt.ToString(), privateInt.ToString());
}
}

public class Driver
{
public static void Main()
{
MyClass myClass = new MyClass(4, 2);

// Save the instance to a file
FileStream stream = new FileStream("C:\\\\myclass.bin", FileMode.CreateNew, FileAccess.Write);
IFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();

// Actually does the saving
formatter.Serialize(myClass);
// Close the file
stream.Close();

// Set MyClass to null so that there are no handles to it anymore
myClass = null;


// Read the instance from the file
stream = new FileStream("C:\\\\myclass.bin", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);

// Actually create the class instance from the file
myClass = (MyClass) formatter.Deserialize(stream);

// Close the stream
stream.Close();

// Show that all data was saved, public AND private
myClass.PrintOut();

}
}

If you want to customize what is saved in the serialization process refer to the documentation on the ISerializable interface HTH, James Simplicity Rules!