Question

Given the following XML:

<?xml version='1.0'?> <user_list>    <user>       <id>1</id>       <name>Joe</name>    </user>    <user>       <id>2</id>       <name>John</name>    </user> </user_list> 

And the following class:

public class User {    [XmlElement('id')]    public Int32 Id { get; set; }     [XmlElement('name')]    public String Name { get; set; } } 

Is it possible to use XmlSerializer to deserialize the xml into a List<User> ? If so, what type of additional attributes will I need to use, or what additional parameters do I need to use to construct the XmlSerializer instance?

An array ( User[] ) would be acceptable, if a bit less preferable.

Answer 1

You can encapsulate the list trivially:

using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Xml.Serialization;  [XmlRoot('user_list')] public class UserList {     public UserList() {Items = new List<User>();}     [XmlElement('user')]     public List<User> Items {get;set;} } public class User {     [XmlElement('id')]     public Int32 Id { get; set; }      [XmlElement('name')]     public String Name { get; set; } }  static class Program {     static void Main()     {         XmlSerializer ser= new XmlSerializer(typeof(UserList));         UserList list = new UserList();         list.Items.Add(new User { Id = 1, Name = 'abc'});         list.Items.Add(new User { Id = 2, Name = 'def'});         list.Items.Add(new User { Id = 3, Name = 'ghi'});         ser.Serialize(Console.Out, list);     } }