Field Initializer in C# Class not Run when Deserializing

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On deserialization neither the constructors nor the field initializers are called and a “blank” un-initialized object is used instead.

To resolve it you can make use of the OnDeserializing or OnDerserialized attributes to have the deserializer call a function with the following signature:

void OnDeserializing(System.Runtime.Serialization.StreamingContext c);

In that function is where you can initialize whatever was missed within the deserialization process.

In terms of convention, I tend to have my constructor call a method OnCreated() and then also have deserializating method call the same thing. You can then handle all of the field initialization in there and be sure it’s fired before deserialization.

[DataContract]
public abstract class MyAbstract
{
    protected Dictionary<int, string> myDict;

    protected MyAbstract()
    {
        OnCreated();
    }

    private void OnCreated()
    {
        myDict = new Dictionary<int, string>();
    }

    [OnDeserializing]
    private void OnDeserializing(StreamingContext c)
    {
        OnCreated();
    }

    private bool MyMethod(int key)
    {
        return myDict.ContainsKey(key);
    }

    private int myProp;

    [DataMember]
    public int MyProp
    {
        get { return myProp; }
        set { bool b = MyMethod(value); myProp = value; }
    }
}

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