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  • Circular reference exception while Serializing DataTable object in .Net

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    How to serialize DataTable object in .Net

    Hi, While working in a .Net project, I am facing an Exception while serializing DataTable object using JavaScriptSerializer. The Exception I am getting is "A circular reference was detected while serializing an object of type 'System.Reflection.RuntimeModule'".

    The code, I have written is as follows:-

     public string SetData()
      {
         DataTable dt = new DataTable();
         dt.Columns.Add("id");
         dt.Columns.Add("Name");
    
         dt.Rows.Add("1", "Manish");
         dt.Rows.Add("2", "Ajay");
         dt.Rows.Add("3", "Ravi");
         dt.Rows.Add("4", "Rahul");
    
         JavaScriptSerializer serial = new JavaScriptSerializer();
         string x = serial.Serialize(dt);
    
         return x;
      }
    

    The following image will give the clear idea this Exception:

    alt text

    If anyone has any idea why I am getting this Exception of Circular Reference and how can I resolve it ?

    Thanks in advance..!

 2 Answer(s)

  • Hi Mayank,
    A circular reference is something like following:-
    root>child>parent>child>root...
    Because when serialization is done(in XML or json), the serialized data follows the node(XML) or key value(json) structure. If your object(to be serialized) is not structured properly,that may result to a circular reference.
    Now,the answer of the question in your case is to tell the compiler to avoid it by using following code

    JsonConvert.SerializeObject(myObject, Formatting.Indented, 
                                new JsonSerializerSettings { 
                                       ReferenceLoopHandling = ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore 
                                })
    

    This code simply tells the compiler to ignore the above described loop of circular reference and move on with the actual job which is the serialization of the provided object.

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