Run code after deserialization

Question

I'm using RestSharp to deserialize some data. This works fine and all the data loads correctly, however one of my fields is in csv format (I can't change this unfortunately) and I need to parse out that data and load it into my object.

What is a good way to structure my class so that the code inside loadData() is run when the "data" object receives a value? I basically want to avoid running loadData on its own before I can use every object, as my SkaterData object is created 20+ times.

This is what my class structure looks like:

public class SkaterData
{
    public int id { get; set; }
    public string data { get; set; }
    public PlayerData PlayerData { get; set; }

    public void loadData()
    {
        var dataRows = data.Split(',');
        PlayerData = new PlayerData(Int32.Parse(dataRows[0]), dataRows[1], dataRows[2]);
    }
}

public class PlayerData
{
    public int Number { get; set; }
    public string Position { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public PlayerData(int number, string position, string name)
    {
        this.Name = name;
        this.Position = position;
        this.Number = number;
    }
}

Answer 1

Both getters and setters are functions which means that you can write something like this:

private string _data;
public int id { get; set; }

public string data
{
    get { return _data; }
    set
    {
        _data = value;
        loadData();
    }
}

public PlayerData PlayerData { get; set; }

public void loadData()
{
    var dataRows = data.Split(',');
    PlayerData = new PlayerData(Int32.Parse(dataRows[0]), dataRows[1], dataRows[2]);
}

In the above code sample, I explicitly defined the data property (which the syntax you were using is just sytantic sugar for). I then added calling loadData to the setter of this property.

Since that setter will get called on deserialization (probably) you may need a slightly different variant of what I have, but its hard to say what it would be based on your problem statement.

Answer 2

I am pretty sure this is what OnDeserializedAttribute is for, but I have not been able to get it to work using an XmlSerializer (edit: that's because it doesn't implement it I guess).

[OnDeserialized()]
internal void OnDeserializedMethod(StreamingContext context)
{

}