Programmatically set properties to exclude from serialization

Question

Is it possible to programmatically set that you want to exclude a property from serialization?

Example:

• When de-serializing, I want to load up an ID fi

Answer 1

It depends on serialization type. Here full example for doing this with BinaryFormatter:

You may use OnDeserializedAttribute:

[Serializable]
class SerializableEntity
{
  [OnDeserialized]
  private void OnDeserialized()
  {
    id = RetrieveId();
  }

  private int RetrievId() {}

  [NonSerialized]
  private int id;
}

And there is another way to do this using IDeserializationCallback:

[Serializable]
class SerializableEntity: IDeserializationCallback 
{
  void IDeserializationCallback.OnDeserialization(Object sender) 
  {
    id = RetrieveId();
  }

  private int RetrievId() {}

  [NonSerialized]
  private int id;
}

Also you may read great Jeffrey Richter's article about serialization: part 1 and part 2.