[c#] Serialize an object to string

I have the following method to save an Object to a file:

// Save an object out to the disk
public static void SerializeObject<T>(this T toSerialize, String filename)
{
    XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(toSerialize.GetType());
    TextWriter textWriter = new StreamWriter(filename);

    xmlSerializer.Serialize(textWriter, toSerialize);
    textWriter.Close();
}

I confess I did not write it (I only converted it to a extension method that took a type parameter).

Now I need it to give the xml back to me as a string (rather than save it to a file). I am looking into it, but I have not figured it out yet.

I thought this might be really easy for someone familiar with these objects. If not I will figure it out eventually.

My 2p...

        string Serialise<T>(T serialisableObject)
        {
            var xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(serialisableObject.GetType());

            using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
            {
                using (var xw = XmlWriter.Create(ms, 
                    new XmlWriterSettings()
                        {
                            Encoding = new UTF8Encoding(false),
                            Indent = true,
                            NewLineOnAttributes = true,
                        }))
                {
                    xmlSerializer.Serialize(xw,serialisableObject);
                    return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray());
                }
            }
        }

[VB]

Public Function XmlSerializeObject(ByVal obj As Object) As String

    Dim xmlStr As String = String.Empty

    Dim settings As New XmlWriterSettings()
    settings.Indent = False
    settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = True
    settings.NewLineChars = String.Empty
    settings.NewLineHandling = NewLineHandling.None

    Using stringWriter As New StringWriter()
        Using xmlWriter__1 As XmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(stringWriter, settings)

            Dim serializer As New XmlSerializer(obj.[GetType]())
            serializer.Serialize(xmlWriter__1, obj)

            xmlStr = stringWriter.ToString()
            xmlWriter__1.Close()
        End Using

        stringWriter.Close()
    End Using

    Return xmlStr.ToString
End Function

Public Function XmlDeserializeObject(ByVal data As [String], ByVal objType As Type) As Object

    Dim xmlSer As New System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(objType)
    Dim reader As TextReader = New StringReader(data)

    Dim obj As New Object
    obj = DirectCast(xmlSer.Deserialize(reader), Object)
    Return obj
End Function

[C#]

public string XmlSerializeObject(object obj)
{
    string xmlStr = String.Empty;
    XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
    settings.Indent = false;
    settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;
    settings.NewLineChars = String.Empty;
    settings.NewLineHandling = NewLineHandling.None;

    using (StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter())
    {
        using (XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(stringWriter, settings))
        {
            XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer( obj.GetType());
            serializer.Serialize(xmlWriter, obj);
            xmlStr = stringWriter.ToString();
            xmlWriter.Close();
        }
    }
    return xmlStr.ToString(); 
}

public object XmlDeserializeObject(string data, Type objType)
{
    XmlSerializer xmlSer = new XmlSerializer(objType);
    StringReader reader = new StringReader(data);

    object obj = new object();
    obj = (object)(xmlSer.Deserialize(reader));
    return obj;
}

I know this is not really an answer to the question, but based on the number of votes for the question and the accepted answer, I suspect the people are actually using the code to serialize an object to a string.

Using XML serialization adds unnecessary extra text rubbish to the output.

For the following class

public class UserData
{
    public int UserId { get; set; }
}

it generates

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<UserData xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
          xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <UserId>0</UserId>
</UserData>

Better solution is to use JSON serialization (one of the best is Json.NET). To serialize an object:

var userData = new UserData {UserId = 0};
var userDataString = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(userData);

To deserialize an object:

var userData = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<UserData>(userDataString);

The serialized JSON string would look like:

{"UserId":0}

I was unable to use the JSONConvert method suggested by xhafan

In .Net 4.5 even after adding the "System.Web.Extensions" assembly reference I was still unable to access the JSONConvert.

However, once you add the reference you can get the same string print out using:

JavaScriptSerializer js = new JavaScriptSerializer();
string jsonstring = js.Serialize(yourClassObject);

In some rare cases you might want to implement your own String serialization.

But that probably is a bad idea unless you know what you are doing. (e.g. serializing for I/O with a batch file)

Something like that would do the trick (and it would be easy to edit by hand/batch), but be careful that some more checks should be done, like that name doesn't contain a newline.

public string name {get;set;}
public int age {get;set;}

Person(string serializedPerson) 
{
    string[] tmpArray = serializedPerson.Split('\n');
    if(tmpArray.Length>2 && tmpArray[0].Equals("#")){
        this.name=tmpArray[1];
        this.age=int.TryParse(tmpArray[2]);
    }else{
        throw new ArgumentException("Not a valid serialization of a person");
    }
}

public string SerializeToString()
{
    return "#\n" +
           name + "\n" + 
           age;
}

Serialize and Deserialize (XML/JSON):

public static T XmlDeserialize<T>(this string toDeserialize)
{
    XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
    using(StringReader textReader = new StringReader(toDeserialize))
    {      
        return (T)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(textReader);
    }
}

public static string XmlSerialize<T>(this T toSerialize)
{
    XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
    using(StringWriter textWriter = new StringWriter())
    {
        xmlSerializer.Serialize(textWriter, toSerialize);
        return textWriter.ToString();
    }
}

public static T JsonDeserialize<T>(this string toDeserialize)
{
    return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(toDeserialize);
}

public static string JsonSerialize<T>(this T toSerialize)
{
    return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(toSerialize);
}

Code Safety Note

Regarding the accepted answer, it is important to use toSerialize.GetType() instead of typeof(T) in XmlSerializer constructor: if you use the first one the code covers all possible scenarios, while using the latter one fails sometimes.

Here is a link with some example code that motivate this statement, with XmlSerializer throwing an Exception when typeof(T) is used, because you pass an instance of a derived type to a method that calls SerializeObject<T>() that is defined in the derived type's base class: http://ideone.com/1Z5J1. Note that Ideone uses Mono to execute code: the actual Exception you would get using the Microsoft .NET runtime has a different Message than the one shown on Ideone, but it fails just the same.

For the sake of completeness I post the full code sample here for future reference, just in case Ideone (where I posted the code) becomes unavailable in the future:

using System;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.IO;

public class Test
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        Sub subInstance = new Sub();
        Console.WriteLine(subInstance.TestMethod());
    }

    public class Super
    {
        public string TestMethod() {
            return this.SerializeObject();
        }
    }

    public class Sub : Super
    {
    }
}

public static class TestExt {
    public static string SerializeObject<T>(this T toSerialize)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(typeof(T).Name);             // PRINTS: "Super", the base/superclass -- Expected output is "Sub" instead
        Console.WriteLine(toSerialize.GetType().Name); // PRINTS: "Sub", the derived/subclass

        XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
        StringWriter textWriter = new StringWriter();

        // And now...this will throw and Exception!
        // Changing new XmlSerializer(typeof(T)) to new XmlSerializer(subInstance.GetType()); 
        // solves the problem
        xmlSerializer.Serialize(textWriter, toSerialize);
        return textWriter.ToString();
    }
}

public static string SerializeObject<T>(T objectToSerialize)
        {
            System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter bf = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
            MemoryStream memStr = new MemoryStream();

            try
            {
                bf.Serialize(memStr, objectToSerialize);
                memStr.Position = 0;

                return Convert.ToBase64String(memStr.ToArray());
            }
            finally
            {
                memStr.Close();
            }
        }

        public static T DerializeObject<T>(string objectToDerialize)
        {
            System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter bf = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
            byte[] byteArray = Convert.FromBase64String(objectToDerialize);
            MemoryStream memStr = new MemoryStream(byteArray);

            try
            {
                return (T)bf.Deserialize(memStr);
            }
            finally
            {
                memStr.Close();
            }
        }

I felt a like I needed to share this manipulated code to the accepted answer - as I have no reputation, I'm unable to comment..

using System;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.IO;

namespace ObjectSerialization
{
    public static class ObjectSerialization
    {
        // THIS: (C): https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2434534/serialize-an-object-to-string
        /// <summary>
        /// A helper to serialize an object to a string containing XML data of the object.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T">An object to serialize to a XML data string.</typeparam>
        /// <param name="toSerialize">A helper method for any type of object to be serialized to a XML data string.</param>
        /// <returns>A string containing XML data of the object.</returns>
        public static string SerializeObject<T>(this T toSerialize)
        {
            // create an instance of a XmlSerializer class with the typeof(T)..
            XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(toSerialize.GetType());

            // using is necessary with classes which implement the IDisposable interface..
            using (StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter())
            {
                // serialize a class to a StringWriter class instance..
                xmlSerializer.Serialize(stringWriter, toSerialize); // a base class of the StringWriter instance is TextWriter..
                return stringWriter.ToString(); // return the value..
            }
        }

        // THIS: (C): VPKSoft, 2018, https://www.vpksoft.net
        /// <summary>
        /// Deserializes an object which is saved to an XML data string. If the object has no instance a new object will be constructed if possible.
        /// <note type="note">An exception will occur if a null reference is called an no valid constructor of the class is available.</note>
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T">An object to deserialize from a XML data string.</typeparam>
        /// <param name="toDeserialize">An object of which XML data to deserialize. If the object is null a a default constructor is called.</param>
        /// <param name="xmlData">A string containing a serialized XML data do deserialize.</param>
        /// <returns>An object which is deserialized from the XML data string.</returns>
        public static T DeserializeObject<T>(this T toDeserialize, string xmlData)
        {
            // if a null instance of an object called this try to create a "default" instance for it with typeof(T),
            // this will throw an exception no useful constructor is found..
            object voidInstance = toDeserialize == null ? Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(T)) : toDeserialize;

            // create an instance of a XmlSerializer class with the typeof(T)..
            XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(voidInstance.GetType());

            // construct a StringReader class instance of the given xmlData parameter to be deserialized by the XmlSerializer class instance..
            using (StringReader stringReader = new StringReader(xmlData))
            {
                // return the "new" object deserialized via the XmlSerializer class instance..
                return (T)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(stringReader);
            }
        }

        // THIS: (C): VPKSoft, 2018, https://www.vpksoft.net
        /// <summary>
        /// Deserializes an object which is saved to an XML data string.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="toDeserialize">A type of an object of which XML data to deserialize.</param>
        /// <param name="xmlData">A string containing a serialized XML data do deserialize.</param>
        /// <returns>An object which is deserialized from the XML data string.</returns>
        public static object DeserializeObject(Type toDeserialize, string xmlData)
        {
            // create an instance of a XmlSerializer class with the given type toDeserialize..
            XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(toDeserialize);

            // construct a StringReader class instance of the given xmlData parameter to be deserialized by the XmlSerializer class instance..
            using (StringReader stringReader = new StringReader(xmlData))
            {
                // return the "new" object deserialized via the XmlSerializer class instance..
                return xmlSerializer.Deserialize(stringReader);
            }
        }
    }
}