C#

private string name;
public string Name {
  get {
    return name;
  }
  set {
    name = value;
  } 
}

[Serializable()]
public class TestClass
{
	private int foo;
	public int Foo
	{
		get
		{
			return foo;
		}
		set
		{
			foo = value;
		}
	}

	public TestClass()
	{
		Foo = 0;
	}
}

public void SaveToDatabase() 
{
	TestClass foo = new TestClass();
	foo.Foo = 3;
	
	// Stream to serialize to
	MemoryStream memStream = new MemoryStream();
	
	BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
	bf.Serialize(memStream, foo);	// Serialize foo

	SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection( /* Get connection string */ );
	SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("AddObject", conn);

	cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

	SqlParameter parm = new SqlParameter("@ObValue", SqlDbType.VarBinary, 8000);
	parm.Value = memStream.ToArray();

	cmd.Parameters.Add(parm);
	
	conn.Open();
	try
	{
		cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
	}
	catch(SqlException ex)
	{
		MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
	}
	finally
	{
		conn.Close();
		memStream.Close();
	}
}

public void LoadObjectFromDatabase() 
{
	TestClass foo;
	long dataSize;

	MemoryStream memStream;		// This stream will eventually hold the data to deserialize

	BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();

	SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection( /* Get connection string */ );
	SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("GetObject", conn);

	cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

	conn.Open();
	SqlDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader();		// Execute the SP

	while(dr.Read())
	{
		// Get the amount of data in the field
		dataSize = dr.GetBytes(0, 0, null, 0, 0);

		// Create a new byte array to hold the data
		byte [] data = new byte[ dataSize ];

		// Actually fetch the data from the database
		dr.GetBytes(0, 0, data, 0, (int) dataSize);

		// Create the memory stream containing the data
		memStream = new MemoryStream(data);

		// Deserialize the object
		foo = (TestClass) bf.Deserialize(memStream);
		// foo is now an instance of our TestClass :)

		// Close the memory stream
		memStream.Close();
	}

	// Clean up
	dr.Close();
	conn.Close();
}