Question

I am serializing objects to XML using System.Xml.Serialization and this requires me to have parameterless constructors.

I am therefore trying to use Object Initialization Syntax to assign values to certain properties and then use the constructor logic to format these values as needs be before I serialize the objects to XML.

My problem is that the constructor runs before the properties are assigned their values. A simplified example is below:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Foo myFoo = new Foo() { HelloWorld = "Beer", HelloWorldAgain = "More beer" };

        Console.WriteLine(myFoo.HelloWorld);
        Console.WriteLine(myFoo.HelloWorldAgain);

        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

public class Foo : Bar
{
    public string HelloWorld { get; set; }

    public Foo()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Foo Was Initialized");
        Console.WriteLine(HelloWorld);
    }
}

public abstract class Bar
{
    public string HelloWorldAgain { get; set; }

    public Bar()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Bar was initialized");
        Console.WriteLine(HelloWorldAgain);
    }
}

This results in the following output:

As you can see the constructor logic runs, and then the properties are assigned values. I need this to work the other way around.

Is this possible?

Answer 1

Serialization requires you to have a parameterless constructor, but does not limit you to that one constructor.

Keep the no-arg constructor for deserialization, but add another constructor that takes your values and does the required initialization when you need to instantiate the class in code.

Object initialization syntax is just shorthand for setting properties after construction.