How to serialize a custom class with YamlDotNet

Question

I'm trying to serialize a custom class with YamlDotNet library.
There is my class :

public class Person
{
    string firstName;
    string lastName;

    public Person(string first, string last)
    {
        firstName = first;
        lastName = last;
    }
}

And there is how, I tried to serialize it :

StreamWriter streamWriter = new StreamWriter("Test.txt");
Person person = new Person("toto", "titi");
Serializer serializer = new Serializer();
serializer.Serialize(streamWriter, person);

But in my output file, I only have this : { }

What I forgot to do to serialize my class ?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

The default behavior of YamlDotNet is to serialize public properties and to ignore fields. The easiest fix is to replace the public fields with automatic properties:

public class Person
{
    public string FirstName { get; private set; }
    public string LastName { get; private set; }

    public Person(string first, string last)
    {
        FirstName = first;
        LastName = last;
    }
}

You could alter the behavior of YamlDotNet to serialize private fields relatively easily, but I do not recommend that.