C# Partial deserialization

Question

So I have an xml that has a similar structure to this:

<MyObject>
    <PropertyA>Value</PropertyA>
    <PropertyB>Value</PropertyB>
    <PropertyC>Value</PropertyC>
    <ArrayOfOtherObject>
        <OtherObject>
            <PropertyX>Value</PropertyX>
            <PropertyY>Value</PropertyY>
            <PropertyZ>Value</PropertyZ>
        </OtherObject>
        <OtherObject>
            <PropertyX>Value</PropertyX>
            <PropertyY>Value</PropertyY>
            <PropertyZ>Value</PropertyZ>
        </OtherObject>
        <OtherObject>
            <PropertyX>Value</PropertyX>
            <PropertyY>Value</PropertyY>
            <PropertyZ>Value</PropertyZ>
        </OtherObject>
    </ArrayOfOtherObject>
</MyObject>

Is there a way that I can deserialize MyObject but not the ArrayOfOtherObject? And then later on do a lazy load of ArrayOfOtherObject when needed?

I usually use XmlDeserialization, but AFAIK it always loads the whole thing.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can use special constructor which is recognized by binary deserialization functionality:

protected MyObject(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
{
//here some elements you can load right now, and some other to store in so-to-say string in order to load later
}

In case of XML - here is an example of custom serialization: http://geekswithblogs.net/marcel/archive/2006/05/19/78989.aspx