Preventing something from being serialized

I was under the impression that [System.NonSerialized] would do this be it doesn't, it still will serialize the data

[System.NonSerialized] public List<GameQuest> gameQuests; <- Still gets serialized to disk !!!!

I can stop it from being serialized by going [System.NonSerialized] private ... but I want to know, why on earth does C# ignore [System.NonSerialized] & serialize it in the above line?

Cheers zed

PS https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/NonSerialized.html
Does not work, I noticed this years ago as well, juding by my comments in my code, WTF is this getting serialized when I'm telling it not to get serialized
perhaps I need to do [System.NonSerializedPrettyPlease]

 

[HideInEditor]

 

OK I assume you mean [HideInInspector] as a google for HideInEditor returns nothing
but it still serializes the field

[HideInInspector] public List<GameQuest> gameQuests; <- serializes
[HideInInspector, System.NonSerialized] public List<GameQuest> gameQuests; <- serializes

 

It works fine in my project (and I assume many others) so you should maybe open a bug report and send it to Unity so they can verify why it doesn't work in your specific case

 

Yes, but my answer and the original question was about [System.NonSerialized]

 

I can't replicate it. Can you share some some surrounding code?

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. [System.Serializable]
3. public class GameQuest
4. {
5.    public int id;
6.  
7.    public GameQuest(int id) { this.id = id; }
8. }
9.  
10. public sealed class Help_NonSerialized : MonoBehaviour
11. {
12.    public List<GameQuest> SerializedList;
13.  
14.    [NonSerialized]
15.    public List<GameQuest> NonSerializedList;
16.  
17.    [NonSerialized]
18.    public GameQuest NonSerializedInstance;
19.  
20.    private void Awake()
21.    {
22.        Debug.LogFormat("SerializedList.Count: {0}", SerializedList.Count);
23.        Debug.LogFormat("NonSerializedList: {0} Count {1}", NonSerializedList, NonSerializedList != null ? NonSerializedList.Count : -1);
24.        Debug.LogFormat("Instance: {0}", NonSerializedInstance);
25.    }
26.  
27.    private void Reset()
28.    {
29.        Debug.Log("Reset");
30.  
31.        SerializedList = new List<GameQuest>()
32.        {
33.            new GameQuest(0),
34.            new GameQuest(1)
35.        };
36.  
37.        NonSerializedList = new List<GameQuest>
38.        {
39.            new GameQuest(100),
40.            new GameQuest(101)
41.        };
42.  
43.        NonSerializedInstance = new GameQuest(200);
44.    }
45. }
46.  

And the prefab YAML saved in the project:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. MonoBehaviour:
3.   m_ObjectHideFlags: 0
4.   m_CorrespondingSourceObject: {fileID: 0}
5.   m_PrefabInstance: {fileID: 0}
6.   m_PrefabAsset: {fileID: 0}
7.   m_GameObject: {fileID: 1765239488863784794}
8.   m_Enabled: 1
9.   m_EditorHideFlags: 0
10.   m_Script: {fileID: 11500000, guid: 1e43c6c0e63ede840be50d19858c13a6, type: 3}
11.   m_Name:
12.   m_EditorClassIdentifier:
13.   SerializedList:
14.   - id: 0
15.   - id: 1
16.  

 

I'm looking at the file on the disk, its updating with the right time stamp.and if I look at the file I can see the NonSerialized data there

OK just tested
[System.NonSerialized] public List<GameQuest> gameQuests; 4038656 bytes on disk
[System.NonSerialized] private List<GameQuest> gameQuests; 3979240 bytes on disk

saving with
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(GameFileContainer));
StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(Application.persistentDataPath + "/" + filename + ".xml" );

IIRC XmlSerializer was not recommended for xml (there are better options?, though I've been using it for years so inertia on my part )

OK tested if I save as binary then both files are the same length, hmmm so its when I save as xml
that [System.NonSerialized] public is still being serialized, with a binary file it works as it should.

PS: This ain't important as like I say I just change it to private and it works, I was just curious why it was not doing what the doc's said

 

Potentially because the XmlSerialiser doesn't respect the NonSerialized attribute?

I imagine it you used JSON this would also be a non-issue.

 

Thanks mate, OK searched a bit more yes it seems as if NonSerialized is ignored, other people were having the same issue.
The solution is to if you want it to not be serialized with xml (at least this parser) is to use
[XmlIgnore]
and not [System.NonSerialized]

And yes You're right I should be using json, I'm using code I wrote many years ago when xml was more widely used than json, I should update

 

Man my memory must be going, I spent 5 minutes trying to find out why it was still being saved even though I specify [System.NonSerialized] and then I remembered oh I think I've had this bug before

and an update I did try json, but the resulting files were larger (for the same data) than xml so decided not to use it (file size/readbility was the biggest reason for me)