In this chapter, you learned how to work with the file system. First, you learned how to create and read both text and binary files. You also learned how to retrieve a list of files in a directory and manipulate file path information.
Next, you learned how to serialize objects to persistent mediums, such as the file system or a database. You learned how to use the BinaryFormatter to save an ArrayList to a file. You also learned how to use the BinaryFormatter to serialize a custom class to a database table.
You were also provided with an overview of the XmlSerializer class. You learned how to use the XmlSerializer to serialize and deserialize a custom class to an XML document. You also learned how to control exactly how a class is serialized by using attributes.