Why use serialization

Question

I've seen couple of examples with serializable attribute like this:

[Serializable()]
            public class sampleClass
            {
                public int Property1{ get; set; }
                public string Proerty2{ get; set; }

                public sampleClass() { }
                public sampleClass(int pr1, int pr2)
                {
                    pr1 = pr1;
                    Name = pr2.ToString();
                }
            }

I never had a good grasp on understanding of how this works, but from msdn:

Serialization allows the developer to save the state of an object and recreate it as needed, providing storage of objects as well as data exchange. Through serialization, a developer can perform actions like sending the object to a remote application by means of a Web Service, passing an object from one domain to another, passing an object through a firewall as an XML string, or maintaining security or user-specific information across applications.

But the problem is that in my code example I see no use for it. Just an object that is used to retrieve data from the database, nothing special. What are some other uses on when to use and when not to use serialization. For example, should I always use serializzation because it is more secure? is it goin to be slower this way?

Update: Thanks for all nice answers

Answer 1

Serialization is useful any time you want to move a representation of your data into or out of your process boundary.

Saving an object to disk is a trivial example you'll see in many tutorials.

More commonly, serialization is used to transfer data to and from a web service, or to persist data to or from a database.