Serialization exception attempting deserialize an empty stream

Questions & Answers
1

I think I’m checking for length before deserializing the file, but it seems to try anyway and give me an error. I can open the file and see that’s it empty. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Any advice would be appreciated!

using UnityEngine;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using System.IO;
using System;

public static class SaveSystem
{

   

    public static void SaveData(PlayerCollision playerCol)
    {
        BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
        string path = Application.persistentDataPath + "/player.fun";
        FileStream stream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Create);

        GameData data = new GameData(playerCol);

        formatter.Serialize(stream, data);
        stream.Close();
    }

    public static GameData LoadData()
    {
        string path = Application.persistentDataPath + "/player.fun";
        if (File.Exists(path) && path.Length > 0)
        {
            BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
            FileStream stream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open);
            GameData data = formatter.Deserialize(stream) as GameData;
            stream.Close();
            return data;
        }
        else
        {
            Debug.LogError("Save file was not found in " + path);
            return null;

        }

    }


}
3

I’m just posting the final solution because so many people fix the errors and don’t share and post to help anybody in the future.
“Dymaniod” on stack overflow pointed out that I wanted to use “stream.length” instead of “path.length” because, as “WarmedxMints” pointed out above, the path will always have a greater length than 0.
I still got a load error loop. The final script that worked is below.
Thanks to both of you who helped!!

using UnityEngine;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using System.IO;
using System;

public static class SaveSystem
{

   

    public static void SaveData(PlayerCollision playerCol)
    {
        BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
        string path = Application.persistentDataPath + "/player.fun";
        FileStream stream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Create);

        GameData data = new GameData(playerCol);

        formatter.Serialize(stream, data);
        stream.Close();
    }

    public static GameData LoadData(PlayerCollision playerCol)
    {
        string path = Application.persistentDataPath + "/player.fun";
        FileStream stream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open);
        if (File.Exists(path) && stream.Length > 0)
        {
            BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
            GameData data = formatter.Deserialize(stream) as GameData;
            stream.Close();
            return data;
        }
        else
        {
            Debug.LogError("Save file was not found in " + path);
            BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
            GameData data = new GameData(playerCol);
            formatter.Serialize(stream, data);
            stream.Close();
            return data;
        }
    }

}
2

You are checking the length of the string, which will always be longer than 0.

Wrap the method contents in a try-catch;

public static GameData LoadData()
{
    try
    {
        string path = Application.persistentDataPath + "/player.fun";
        if (File.Exists(path))
        {
            BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
            FileStream stream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open);
            GameData data = formatter.Deserialize(stream) as GameData;
            stream.Close();
            return data;
        }
        else
        {
            Debug.LogError("Save file was not found in " + path);
            return null;
        }
    }
    catch (System.Exception e)
    {
        Debug.LogError("Error Loading Save " + e);
        return null;
    }
}