What is [Serializable] and when should I use it?

What is it?

When you create an object in a .Net framework application, you don't need to think about how the data is stored in memory. Because the .Net Framework takes care of that for you. However, if you want to store the contents of an object to a file, send an object to another process or transmit it across the network, you do have to think about how the object is represented because you will need to convert to a different format. This conversion is called SERIALIZATION.

Uses for Serialization

Serialization allows the developer to save the state of an object and recreate it as needed, providing storage of objects as well as data exchange. Through serialization, a developer can perform actions like sending the object to a remote application by means of a Web Service, passing an object from one domain to another, passing an object through a firewall as an XML string, or maintaining security or user-specific information across applications.

Apply SerializableAttribute to a type to indicate that instances of this type can be serialized. Apply the SerializableAttribute even if the class also implements the ISerializable interface to control the serialization process.

All the public and private fields in a type that are marked by the SerializableAttribute are serialized by default, unless the type implements the ISerializable interface to override the serialization process. The default serialization process excludes fields that are marked with NonSerializedAttribute. If a field of a serializable type contains a pointer, a handle, or some other data structure that is specific to a particular environment, and cannot be meaningfully reconstituted in a different environment, then you might want to apply NonSerializedAttribute to that field.

See MSDN for more details.

Edit 1

Any reason to not mark something as serializable

When transferring or saving data, you need to send or save only the required data. So there will be less transfer delays and storage issues. So you can opt out unnecessary chunk of data when serializing.

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Since the original question was about the SerializableAttribute, it should be noted that this attribute only applies when using the BinaryFormatter or SoapFormatter.

It is a bit confusing, unless you really pay attention to the details, as to when to use it and what its actual purpose is.

It has NOTHING to do with XML or JSON serialization.

Used with the SerializableAttribute are the ISerializable Interface and SerializationInfo Class. These are also only used with the BinaryFormatter or SoapFormatter.

Unless you intend to serialize your class using Binary or Soap, do not bother marking your class as [Serializable]. XML and JSON serializers are not even aware of its existence.

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Some practical uses for the [Serializable] attribute:

Saving object state using binary serialisation; you can very easily 'save' entire object instances in your application to a file or network stream and then recreate them by deserialising - check out the BinaryFormatter class in System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary

Writing classes whose object instances can be stored on the clipboard using Clipboard.SetData() - nonserialisable classes cannot be placed on the clipboard.

Writing classes which are compatible with .NET Remoting; generally, any class instance you pass between application domains (except those which extend from MarshalByRefObject) must be serialisable.

These are the most common usage cases that I have come across.

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Serialization is the process of converting an object into a stream of bytes to store the object or transmit it to memory, a database, or a file. How serialization works This illustration shows the overall process of serialization: The object is serialized to a stream that carries the data. The stream may also have information about the object's type, such as its version, culture, and assembly name. From that stream, the object can be stored in a database, a file, or memory.

Details in Microsoft Docs.

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Here is short example of how serialization works. I was also learning about the same and I found two links useful. What Serialization is and how it can be done in .NET.

A sample program explaining serialization

If you don't understand the above program a much simple program with explanation is given here.

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Serialization

Serialization is the process of converting an object or a set of objects graph into a stream, it is a byte array in the case of binary serialization

Uses of Serialization

To save the state of an object into a file, database etc. and use it latter. To send an object from one process to another (App Domain) on the same machine and also send it over wire to a process running on another machine. To create a clone of the original object as a backup while working on the main object. A set of objects can easily be copied to the system’s clipboard and then pasted into the same or another application

Below are some useful custom attributes that are used during serialization of an object

[Serializable] -> It is used when we mark an object’s serializable [NonSerialized] -> It is used when we do not want to serialize an object’s field. [OnSerializing] -> It is used when we want to perform some action while serializing an object [OnSerialized] -> It is used when we want to perform some action after serialized an object into stream.

Below is the example of serialization

[Serializable]
    internal class DemoForSerializable
    {
        internal string Fname = string.Empty;
        internal string Lname = string.Empty;

        internal Stream SerializeToMS(DemoForSerializable demo)
        {
            DemoForSerializable objSer = new DemoForSerializable();
            MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
            BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
            bf.Serialize(ms, objSer);
            return ms;
        }

        [OnSerializing]
        private void OnSerializing(StreamingContext context) {
            Fname = "sheo";
            Lname = "Dayal";
        }
        [OnSerialized]
        private void OnSerialized(StreamingContext context)
        {
       // Do some work after serialized object
        }

    }

Here is the calling code

class Program
    {
        string fname = string.Empty;
        string Lname = string.Empty; 

       static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            DemoForSerializable demo = new DemoForSerializable();

            Stream ms = demo.SerializeToMS(demo);
            ms.Position = 0;

            DemoForSerializable demo1 = new BinaryFormatter().Deserialize(ms) as DemoForSerializable;

            Console.WriteLine(demo1.Fname);
            Console.WriteLine(demo1.Lname);
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

    }

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