How to check if an object is serializable in C#

Question

I am looking for an easy way to check if an object in C# is serializable.

As we know you make an object serializable by either implementing the ISerializable

Answer 1

Use Type.IsSerializable as others have pointed out.

It's probably not worth attempting to reflect and check if all members in the object graph are serializable.

A member could be declared as a serializable type, but in fact be instantiated as a derived type that is not serializable, as in the following contrived example:

[Serializable]
public class MyClass
{
   public Exception TheException; // serializable
}

public class MyNonSerializableException : Exception
{
...
}

...
MyClass myClass = new MyClass();
myClass.TheException = new MyNonSerializableException();
// myClass now has a non-serializable member

Therefore, even if you determine that a specific instance of your type is serializable, you can't in general be sure this will be true of all instances.