比如，一个计数器，数值为2，我们可以用字符串“2”表示。
如果有个对象，叫做connter，当前值为2，那么可以序列化成“2”，反向的，也可以从“2”得到值为2的计数器实例。
这样，关机时序列化它，开机时反序列化它，每次开机都是延续的。不会都是从头开始。

序列化概念的提出和实现，可以使我们的应用程序的设置信息保存和读取更加方便。

序列化有很多好处，比如，在一台机器上产生一个实例，初始化完毕，然后可以序列化，通过网络传送到另一台机器，然后反序列化，得到对象实例，之后再执行某些业务逻辑，得到结果，再序列化，返回第一台机器，第一台机器得到对象实例，得到结果。
这个例子是目前比较先进的“智能代理”的原理。

当前比较热火的web services使用soap协议，soap协议也是以对象的可序列化为基础的。

    [XmlRoot("humanResource")]
    public class HumanResource
    {
        #region private data.
        private int m_record = 0;
        private Worker[] m_workers = null;
        #endregion
 
        [XmlAttribute(AttributeName="record")]
        public int Record
        {
            get { return m_record; }
            set { m_record = value; }
        }
 
        [XmlElement(ElementName="worker")]
        public Worker[] Workers
        {
            get { return m_workers; }
            set { m_workers = value; }
        }
}
 
    public class Worker
    {
        #region private data.
        private string m_number = null;
        private InformationItem[] m_infoItems = null;
        #endregion
 
        [XmlAttribute("number")]
        public string Number
        {
            get { return m_number; }
            set { m_number = value; }
        }
 
        [XmlElement("infoItem")]
        public InformationItem[] InfoItems
        {
            get { return m_infoItems; }
            set { m_infoItems = value; }
        }
}
 
    public class InformationItem
    {
        #region private data.
        private string m_name = null;
        private string m_value = null;
        #endregion
 
        [XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "name")]
        public string Name
        {
            get { return m_name; }
            set { m_name = value; }
        }
 
        [XmlText]
        public string Value
        {
            get { return m_value; }
            set { m_value = value; }
        }
}

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
- <humanResource xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"record="2">
- <worker number="001">
                 <infoItem name="name">Michale</infoItem>
                 <infoItem name="sex">male</infoItem>
                 <infoItem name="age">25</infoItem>
            </worker>
- <worker number="002">
                 <infoItem name="name">Surce</infoItem>
                 <infoItem name="sex">male</infoItem>
                 <infoItem name="age">28</infoItem>
           </worker>
         </humanResource>

public sealed class ConfigurationManager
    {
        private static HumanResource m_humanResource = null;
        private ConfigurationManager(){}
 
        public static HumanResource Get(string path)
        {
            if (m_humanResource == null)
            {
                FileStream fs = null;
                try
                {
                    XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(HumanResource));
                    fs = new FileStream(path,FileMode.Open,FileAccess.Read);
                    m_humanResource = (HumanResource)xs.Deserialize(fs);
                    fs.Close();
                    return m_humanResource;
                }
                catch
                {
                    if (fs != null)
                        fs.Close();
                    throw new Exception("Xml deserialization Failed!");
                }
 
            }
            else
            {
                return m_humanResource;
            }
        }
 
        public static void Set(string path,HumanResource humanResource)
        {
            if (humanResource == null)
                throw new Exception("Parameter humanResource is null!");
           
            FileStream fs = null;
            try
            {
                XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(HumanResource));
                fs = new FileStream(path,FileMode.Create,FileAccess.Write);
                xs.Serialize(fs,humanResource);
                m_humanResource = null;
                fs.Close();
            }
            catch
            {
                if (fs != null)
                    fs.Close();
                throw new Exception("Xml serialization Failed!");
            }
        }
    }