good / evil [good wins :) - Resolved]

[wossname]

Is it possible or even good or bad practice to code a class so that it can serialize itself?

I have a class that currently only serializes one of its data members (an array). But how about this...

<Serializable()> Public Class X
    Shared Function LoadNewObject(ByVal path As String) As X
 
        Dim binser As BinaryFormatter = New BinaryFormatter
        Dim input As Stream = New FileStream(path, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.None)
 
        Dim temp As X
        temp = binser.Deserialize(input)
        input.close()
 
        Return temp
 
    End Function
 
    Public Sub SaveSelf(ByVal path As String)
 
        Dim binser As BinaryFormatter = New BinaryFormatter
        Dim output As Stream = New FileStream(Path, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None)
 
        binser.Serialize(output, Me)
 
        output.Close()
 
    End Sub
End Class

Your thoughts please.