Serialize an object to XML

Question

I have a C  class that I have inherited  I have successfully  built  the object  But I need to serialize the object to XML  Is there an easy way to do it   It looks like the class has been set up for serialization  but I m not sure how to get the XML representation  My class definition looks like this    System CodeDom Compiler GeneratedCodeAttribute  xsd    4 0 30319 1     System SerializableAttribute     System Diagnostics DebuggerStepThroughAttribute     System ComponentModel DesignerCategoryAttribute  code     System Xml Serialization XmlTypeAttribute AnonymousType   true  Namespace    http   www domain com test     System Xml Serialization XmlRootAttribute Namespace    http   www domain com test   IsNullable   false   public partial class MyObject             Here is what I thought I could do  but it doesn t work   MyObject o   new MyObject       Set o properties string xml   o ToString      How do I get the XML representation of this object

User · Answer

public string ObjectToXML object input        try               var stringwriter   new System IO StringWriter            var serializer   new XmlSerializer input GetType             serializer Serialize stringwriter  input           return stringwriter ToString              catch  Exception ex                if  ex InnerException    null              ex   ex InnerException           return  Could not convert      ex Message             Usage var res   ObjectToXML obj    You need to use following classes   using System IO  using System Xml  using System Xml Serialization

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Here is a good tutorial on how to do this  You should basically use System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer class to do this

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my work code  Returns utf8 xml enable empty namespace      override StringWriter public class Utf8StringWriter   StringWriter       public override Encoding Encoding   gt  Encoding UTF8     private string GenerateXmlResponse Object obj            Type t   obj GetType         var xml            using  StringWriter sww   new Utf8StringWriter                  using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create sww                         var ns   new XmlSerializerNamespaces                   add empty namespace             ns Add                      XmlSerializer xsSubmit   new XmlSerializer t               xsSubmit Serialize writer  obj  ns               xml   sww ToString       Your XML                     return xml      Example returns response Yandex api payment Aviso url    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt  lt paymentAvisoResponse xmlns xsi  http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema-instance  xmlns xsd  http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema  performedDatetime  2017-09-01T16 22 08 9747654 07 00  code  0  shopId  54321  invoiceId  12345  orderSumAmount  10643    gt

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I have a simple way to serialize an object to XML using C   it works great and it s highly reusable  I know this is an older thread  but I wanted to post this because someone may find this helpful to them   Here is how I call the method   var objectToSerialize   new MyObject    var xmlString   objectToSerialize ToXmlString      Here is the class that does the work   Note  Since these are extension methods they need to be in a static class   using System IO  using System Xml Serialization   public static class XmlTools       public static string ToXmlString lt T gt  this T input                using  var writer   new StringWriter                          input ToXml writer               return writer ToString                         private static void ToXml lt T gt  this T objectToSerialize  StringWriter writer                new XmlSerializer typeof T   Serialize writer  objectToSerialize

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string FilePath   ConfigurationReader FileLocation      Getting path value from web config                 XmlSerializer serializer   new XmlSerializer typeof Devices      typeof object              MemoryStream memStream   new MemoryStream                serializer Serialize memStream  lstDevices    lstdevices   I take result as a list              FileStream file   new FileStream folderName      Data xml   FileMode Create  FileAccess ReadWrite     foldername Specify the path to store the xml file             memStream WriteTo file               file Close      You can create and store the result as xml file in the desired location

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Extension class   using System IO  using System Xml  using System Xml Serialization   namespace MyProj Extensions       public static class XmlExtension               public static string Serialize lt T gt  this T value                        if  value    null  return string Empty               var xmlSerializer   new XmlSerializer typeof T                 using  var stringWriter   new StringWriter                                  using  var xmlWriter   XmlWriter Create stringWriter new XmlWriterSettings Indent   true                                          xmlSerializer Serialize xmlWriter  value                       return stringWriter ToString                                                            Usage   Foo foo   new Foo MyProperty  I have been serialized     string xml   foo Serialize      Just reference the namespace holding your extension method in the file you would like to use it in and it ll work  in my example it would be  using MyProj Extensions    Note that if you want to make the extension method specific to only a particular class eg   Foo   you can replace the T argument in the extension method  eg    public static string Serialize this Foo value

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To serialize an object  do    using  StreamWriter myWriter   new StreamWriter path  false           XmlSerializer mySerializer   new XmlSerializer typeof your object type         mySerializer Serialize myWriter  objectToSerialize        Also remember that for XmlSerializer to work  you need a parameterless constructor

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I will start with the copy answer of Ben Gripka   public void Save string FileName        using  var writer   new System IO StreamWriter FileName                 var serializer   new XmlSerializer this GetType             serializer Serialize writer  this           writer Flush              I used this code earlier  But reality showed that this solution is a bit problematic  Usually most of programmers just serialize setting on save and deserialize settings on load  This is an optimistic scenario  Once the serialization failed  because of some reason  the file is partly written  XML file is not complete and it is invalid  In consequence XML deserialization does not work and your application may crash on start  If the file is not huge  I suggest first serialize object to MemoryStream then write the stream to the File  This case is especially important if there is some complicated custom serialization  You can never test all cases   public void Save string fileName          first serialize the object to memory stream        in case of exception  the original file is not corrupted     using  MemoryStream ms   new MemoryStream                  var writer   new System IO StreamWriter ms               var serializer   new XmlSerializer this GetType             serializer Serialize writer  this           writer Flush               if the serialization succeed  rewrite the file          File WriteAllBytes fileName  ms ToArray               The deserialization in real world scenario should count with corrupted serialization file  it happens sometime  Load function provided by Ben Gripka is fine   public static  ObjectType  Load string fileName        using  var stream   System IO File OpenRead fileName                 var serializer   new XmlSerializer typeof  ObjectType             return serializer Deserialize stream  as  ObjectType                         And it could be wrapped by some recovery scenario  It is suitable for settings files or other files which can be deleted in case of problems   public static  ObjectType  LoadWithRecovery string fileName        try               return Load fileName             catch Excetion                File Delete fileName     delete corrupted settings file         return GetFactorySettings

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It s a little bit more complicated than calling the ToString method of the class  but not much   Here s a simple drop-in function you can use to serialize any type of object  It returns a string containing the serialized XML contents   public string SerializeObject object obj        System Xml XmlDocument xmlDoc   new System Xml XmlDocument        System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer serializer   new System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer obj GetType         using  System IO MemoryStream ms   new System IO MemoryStream              serializer Serialize ms  obj           ms Position   0          xmlDoc Load ms           return xmlDoc InnerXml

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All upvoted answers above are correct  This is just simplest version   private string Serialize Object o        using  var writer   new StringWriter                  new XmlSerializer o GetType    Serialize writer  o           return writer ToString

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Based on above solutions  here comes a extension class which you can use to serialize and deserialize any object  Any other XML attributions are up to you   Just use it like this           string s   new MyObject   Serialize       to serialize into a string         MyObject b   s Deserialize lt MyObject gt       deserialize from a string    internal static class Extensions       public static T Deserialize lt T gt  this string value                var xmlSerializer   new XmlSerializer typeof T             return  T xmlSerializer Deserialize new StringReader value               public static string Serialize lt T gt  this T value                if  value    null              return string Empty           var xmlSerializer   new XmlSerializer typeof T             using  var stringWriter   new StringWriter                          using  var xmlWriter   XmlWriter Create stringWriter  new XmlWriterSettings   Indent   true                                   xmlSerializer Serialize xmlWriter  value                   return stringWriter ToString

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The following function can be copied to any object to add an XML save function using the System Xml namespace        lt summary gt      Saves to an xml file      lt  summary gt       lt param name  FileName  gt File path of the new xml file lt  param gt  public void Save string FileName        using  var writer   new System IO StreamWriter FileName                 var serializer   new XmlSerializer this GetType             serializer Serialize writer  this           writer Flush              To create the object from the saved file  add the following function and replace  ObjectType  with the object type to be created        lt summary gt      Load an object from an xml file      lt  summary gt       lt param name  FileName  gt Xml file name lt  param gt       lt returns gt The object created from the xml file lt  returns gt  public static  ObjectType  Load string FileName        using  var stream   System IO File OpenRead FileName                 var serializer   new XmlSerializer typeof  ObjectType             return serializer Deserialize stream  as  ObjectType

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You have to use XmlSerializer for XML serialization  Below is a sample snippet    XmlSerializer xsSubmit   new XmlSerializer typeof MyObject     var subReq   new MyObject     var xml         using var sww   new StringWriter            using XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create sww                   xsSubmit Serialize writer  subReq            xml   sww ToString       Your XML

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You can use the function like below to get serialized XML from any object   public static bool Serialize lt T gt  T value  ref string serializeXml        if  value    null                return false            try               XmlSerializer xmlserializer   new XmlSerializer typeof T            StringWriter stringWriter   new StringWriter            XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create stringWriter            xmlserializer Serialize writer  value            serializeXml   stringWriter ToString             writer Close            return true            catch  Exception ex                return false            You can call this from the client

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Here s a basic code that will help serializing the C  objects into xml   using System   public class clsPerson     public  string FirstName    public  string MI    public  string LastName     class class1       static void Main string   args             clsPerson p new clsPerson          p FirstName    Jeff         p MI    A         p LastName    Price         System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer x   new System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer p GetType           x Serialize Console Out  p         Console WriteLine          Console ReadLine

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I modified mine to return a string rather than use a ref variable like below   public static string Serialize lt T gt  this T value        if  value    null                return string Empty            try               var xmlserializer   new XmlSerializer typeof T            var stringWriter   new StringWriter            using  var writer   XmlWriter Create stringWriter                         xmlserializer Serialize writer  value               return stringWriter ToString                        catch  Exception ex                throw new Exception  An error occurred   ex             Its usage would be like this   var xmlString   obj Serialize

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Or you can add this method to your object       public void Save string filename                var ser   new XmlSerializer this GetType             using  var stream   new FileStream filename  FileMode Create               ser Serialize stream  this

[c#] Serialize an object to XML

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