A way to have static class for deserialize and serializing objects

Question

I am wondering if anyone could help me with an example of a class that can take any type and serialize it into string like JSON or delim string, and back to it's original type. The config settings in the text file are a line of values, with a delimiter.

For example, I have a object or class that is a configurationsetting. So, when reading in a line in the config/text file, I want to serialize it into an ConfigurationSetting object. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance! I have seen this with JSOn but cannot find a reference to it, so have forgotten how it was handled.

Here is an example of the config file:

a line form it is as follows: ZZZVISA***|PUBLIX VISA MAIN.PDF|LITERAL|TRUE

So is this not possible because I do not have the property names with the values, for .net to know how to handle it?

Answer 1

You can serialize data in that format using string.format. To deserialize it you could use a RegEx to split it into groups. I have a class I use in some projects that parses lines like that coming from serial connected devices. My Parser class is shown below, it accepts a Regex string and can return strongly-typed results.

e.g.

        var sp = new Parser("# (d+) VO(d+) SP(d+)\\+");
        int a, b, c;
        bool ok = sp.Parse<int, int, int>("# 123 VO256 SP256+", out a, out b, out c);

.

/// <summary>
/// A strongly typed parse result containing up to 10 elements, each individually strongly typed
/// </summary>
public class Parser
{
    Regex regex;
    public Parser(string regularExpression)
    {
        this.regex = new Regex(regularExpression, RegexOptions.Compiled);
    }

    public bool Parse<T>(string input, out T value1)
    {
        bool ok = true;
        var match = this.regex.Match(input);
        ok = Assign(match, 1, out value1) && ok;
        return ok;
    }

    public bool Parse<T1, T2>(string input, out T1 value1, out T2 value2)
    {
        bool ok = true;
        var match = this.regex.Match(input);
        ok = Assign(match, 1, out value1) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 2, out value2) && ok;
        return ok;
    }

    public bool Parse<T1, T2, T3>(string input, out T1 value1, out T2 value2, out T3 value3)
    {
        bool ok = true;
        var match = this.regex.Match(input);
        ok = Assign(match, 1, out value1) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 2, out value2) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 3, out value3) && ok;
        return ok;
    }

    public bool Parse<T1, T2, T3, T4>(string input, out T1 value1, out T2 value2, out T3 value3, out T4 value4)
    {
        bool ok = true;
        var match = this.regex.Match(input);
        ok = Assign(match, 1, out value1) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 2, out value2) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 3, out value3) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 4, out value4) && ok;
        return ok;
    }

    public bool Parse<T1, T2, T3, T4, T5>(string input, out T1 value1, out T2 value2, out T3 value3, out T4 value4, out T5 value5)
    {
        bool ok = true;
        var match = this.regex.Match(input);
        ok = Assign(match, 1, out value1) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 2, out value2) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 3, out value3) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 4, out value4) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 5, out value5) && ok;
        return ok;
    }

    public bool Parse<T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6>(string input, out T1 value1, out T2 value2, out T3 value3, out T4 value4, out T5 value5, out T6 value6)
    {
        bool ok = true;
        var match = this.regex.Match(input);
        ok = Assign(match, 1, out value1) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 2, out value2) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 3, out value3) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 4, out value4) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 5, out value5) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 6, out value6) && ok;
        return ok;
    }

    public bool Parse<T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7>(string input, out T1 value1, out T2 value2, out T3 value3, out T4 value4, out T5 value5, out T6 value6, out T7 value7)
    {
        bool ok = true;
        var match = this.regex.Match(input);
        ok = Assign(match, 1, out value1) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 2, out value2) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 3, out value3) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 4, out value4) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 5, out value5) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 6, out value6) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 7, out value7) && ok;
        return ok;
    }

    public bool Parse<T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8>(string input, out T1 value1, out T2 value2, out T3 value3, out T4 value4, out T5 value5, out T6 value6, out T7 value7, out T8 value8)
    {
        bool ok = true;
        var match = this.regex.Match(input);
        ok = Assign(match, 1, out value1) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 2, out value2) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 3, out value3) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 4, out value4) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 5, out value5) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 6, out value6) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 7, out value7) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 8, out value8) && ok;
        return ok;
    }

    public bool Parse<T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9>(string input, out T1 value1, out T2 value2, out T3 value3, out T4 value4, out T5 value5, out T6 value6, out T7 value7, out T8 value8, out T9 value9)
    {
        bool ok = true;
        var match = this.regex.Match(input);
        ok = Assign(match, 1, out value1) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 2, out value2) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 3, out value3) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 4, out value4) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 5, out value5) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 6, out value6) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 7, out value7) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 8, out value8) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 9, out value9) && ok;
        return ok;
    }

    public bool Parse<T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10>(string input, out T1 value1, out T2 value2, out T3 value3, out T4 value4, out T5 value5, out T6 value6, out T7 value7, out T8 value8, out T9 value9, out T10 value10)
    {
        bool ok = true;
        var match = this.regex.Match(input);
        ok = Assign(match, 1, out value1) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 2, out value2) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 3, out value3) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 4, out value4) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 5, out value5) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 6, out value6) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 7, out value7) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 8, out value8) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 9, out value9) && ok;
        ok = Assign(match, 10, out value10) && ok;
        return ok;
    }

    private bool Assign<X>(Match match, int index, out X value)
    {
        if (match.Success)
        {
            Group group = match.Groups[index];
            var stringValue = group.Value;
            var foo = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(typeof(X));
            value = (X)(foo.ConvertFromInvariantString(stringValue));
            return true;
        }
        else
        {
            value = default(X);
            return false;
        }
    }

Answer 2

You could use something like JSON.Net to serialize your objects to/from JSON.

The Basic Reading and Writing page in the documentation shows how to read from and write to JSON from .NET objects.

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If you just want to break up the delimited info, and create it, you might also want to consider using String.Split and String.Join. These methods allow you to break up the delimited text into arrays, and rejoin an array back into your delimited text.