Question

Here is the structure of the data my object will need to expose (the data is NOT really stored in XML, it was just the easiest way to illustrate the layout):

<Department id='Accounting'>   <Employee id='1234'>Joe Jones</Employee>   <Employee id='5678'>Steve Smith</Employee> </Department> <Department id='Marketing'>   <Employee id='3223'>Kate Connors</Employee>   <Employee id='3218'>Noble Washington</Employee>   <Employee id='3233'>James Thomas</Employee> </Department> 

When I de-serialize the data, how should I expose it in terms of properties on my object? If it were just Department and EmployeeID, I think I’d use a dictionary. But I also need to associate the EmployeeName, too.

Answer 1

Class Department    Public Id As Integer    Public Employees As List(Of Employee) End Class  Class Employee    Public Id As Integer    Public Name As String End Class 

Something like that (can’t remember my VB syntax). Be sure to use Properties versus Public members…