[Boost-users] [Serialization] Runtime checking of types in deserialization

Subject: [Boost-users] [Serialization] Runtime checking of types in deserialization
From: Frank Winklmeier (frank.winklmeier_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-10-28 15:24:44

Hi,

is there any way to check whether the class type used in deserialization
is identical to the class type in the serialization? Below is a simple
example, that serializes class "Data" into a text archive and
deserializes this archive into class "StringData". If that happens I
would like an exception to be thrown. Is this possible?

Thanks for any help,
Frank

#include <boost/archive/text_oarchive.hpp>
#include <boost/archive/text_iarchive.hpp>

#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>

using namespace std;

class Data {
public:
   Data() { for (int i=0; i<100; i++) a[i]=i; };
   int a[100];

   template<class Archive>
   void serialize(Archive & ar, const unsigned int) { ar & a; }
};

class StringData {
public:
   StringData() {};
   string s;

   template<class Archive>
   void serialize(Archive & ar, const unsigned int) { ar & s; }
};

int main() {

   ostringstream oss;

   // Serialize the class
   const Data d1;
   {
     boost::archive::text_oarchive oa(oss);
     oa << d1;
   }

   // Deserialize it using the wrong type
   StringData d2;
   {
     istringstream iss(oss.str());
     boost::archive::text_iarchive ia(iss);
     ia >> d2;
   }

   cout << oss.str() << endl;
   cout << d2.s << endl;
}

Output:
=======
22 serialization::archive 4 0 0 100 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38
39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62
63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86
87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36