Prevent Property from being serialized

Question

I tried something like this:

    [NonSerialized]
    private string _DecodeText;
    public string DecodeText { get { return _DecodeText; } set { _DecodeText = value; } }

But it does not work. "DecodeText" is still in the serialized file. How can i prevent the property from serializing?

Answer 1

I was able to use the following and not have the property serialized (.NET 4.0):

private string _DecodeText;
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlIgnore]
public string DecodeText { get { return _DecodeText; } set { _DecodeText = value; } }

Answer 2

I Suspect you're using the XmlSerializer? If so use the [XmlIgnore] attribute instead.

This should be applied to the property instead of the backing field as the XmlSerializer serializes public fields and properties (whereas the BinaryFormatter uses refelction to get at the private fields - hence the marking of the private field with NonSerialized when using a BinaryFormatter).

Answer 3

Updated Answer

The [NonSerialized] atttibute is on the variable not the property, but it cannot be on the attribute. So it is not going to help.

One way to prevent the property being serialized is to add a method

public bool ShouldSerializeDecodeText() {
   return false;
}

and this (for the XmlSerializer at least) will prevent the property being serialized.

If you don't want to add lots of methods to the class just for serialization you might try inheriting from it and adding the methods to the derived class.

hth, Alan.