Serialize an object to string

Question

I have the following method to save an Object to a file      Save an object out to the disk public static void SerializeObject lt T gt  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

User · Accepted Answer

Use a StringWriter instead of a StreamWriter   public static string SerializeObject lt T gt  this T toSerialize        XmlSerializer xmlSerializer   new XmlSerializer toSerialize GetType          using StringWriter textWriter   new StringWriter                  xmlSerializer Serialize textWriter  toSerialize           return textWriter ToString              Note  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 subclasses of T  which are valid for the method   while using the latter one will fail when passing a type derived from T       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 that is defined in the derived type s base class  http   ideone com 1Z5J1   Also  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

User · Answer

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

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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 gt 2  amp  amp  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

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My 2p             string Serialise lt T gt  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

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public static string SerializeObject lt T gt  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 lt T gt  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

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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              lt summary gt              A helper to serialize an object to a string containing XML data of the object               lt  summary gt               lt typeparam name  T  gt An object to serialize to a XML data string  lt  typeparam gt               lt param name  toSerialize  gt A helper method for any type of object to be serialized to a XML data string  lt  param gt               lt returns gt A string containing XML data of the object  lt  returns gt          public static string SerializeObject lt T gt  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              lt summary gt              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               lt note type  note  gt An exception will occur if a null reference is called an no valid constructor of the class is available  lt  note gt               lt  summary gt               lt typeparam name  T  gt An object to deserialize from a XML data string  lt  typeparam gt               lt param name  toDeserialize  gt An object of which XML data to deserialize  If the object is null a a default constructor is called  lt  param gt               lt param name  xmlData  gt A string containing a serialized XML data do deserialize  lt  param gt               lt returns gt An object which is deserialized from the XML data string  lt  returns gt          public static T DeserializeObject lt T gt  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              lt summary gt              Deserializes an object which is saved to an XML data string               lt  summary gt               lt param name  toDeserialize  gt A type of an object of which XML data to deserialize  lt  param gt               lt param name  xmlData  gt A string containing a serialized XML data do deserialize  lt  param gt               lt returns gt An object which is deserialized from the XML data string  lt  returns gt          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

User · Answer

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

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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    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-16   gt   lt UserData xmlns xsd  http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema             xmlns xsi  http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema-instance  gt      lt UserId gt 0 lt  UserId gt   lt  UserData gt    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 lt UserData gt  userDataString     The serialized JSON string would look like     UserId  0

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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 lt T gt    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 lt T gt  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

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Serialize and Deserialize  XML JSON   public static T XmlDeserialize lt T gt  this string toDeserialize        XmlSerializer xmlSerializer   new XmlSerializer typeof T        using StringReader textReader   new StringReader toDeserialize                       return  T xmlSerializer Deserialize textReader            public static string XmlSerialize lt T gt  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 lt T gt  this string toDeserialize        return JsonConvert DeserializeObject lt T gt  toDeserialize      public static string JsonSerialize lt T gt  this T toSerialize        return JsonConvert SerializeObject toSerialize

[c#] Serialize an object to string

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