Question

I am using XSD’s to define my DTO types in C#. I am using XSD.exe to gen the classes from the XSD’s.

I have a Common.xsd that defines an Address type and I want to use this in more than one class:

  <xs:complexType name="Address">
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="Street1" type="xs:string"/>
      <xs:element name="Street2" type="xs:string"/>
      <xs:element name="City" type="xs:string"/>
      <xs:element name="State" type="xs:string"/>
      <xs:element name="Zip" type="xs:string"/>
    </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>

  <xs:element name="Address" type="mhm:Address"/>

I am referencing this in a company XSD:

  <xs:include schemaLocation=".\Common.xsd"/>
  <xs:complexType name="Company">
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="AdmCode" type="xs:string"/>
      <xs:element name="CompanyCode" type="xs:string"/>
      <xs:element name="Name" type="xs:string"/>
      <xs:element ref="mhm:Address"/>
    </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>

  <xs:element name="Company" type="mhm:Company"/>

And an employee XSD:

  <xs:include schemaLocation=".\Common.xsd"/>
  <xs:complexType name="Employee">
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="EmployeeNumber" type="xs:int"/>
      <xs:element name="FirstName" type="xs:string"/>
      <xs:element name="LastName" type="xs:string"/>
      <xs:element name="Address" type="mhm:Address"/>
    </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>
  <xs:element name="Employee" type="mhm:Employee"/>

I gen the classes using this command line:

xsd .\XSD\Common.xsd /c /o:. /n:"DomainModel"
xsd .\XSD\Employee.xsd /c /o:. /n:"DomainModel"
xsd .\XSD\Company.xsd /c /o:. /n:"DomainModel"

When I go to compile the project, I find that the Address type has been generated in both the Company.cs class file and the Employee.cs class file.

How can I get the Address type generated just once in the Common.cs class file and the Employee and Company types use this single Address type?

Answer 1

You can use XSD.exe with multiple file arguments:

xsd .\XSD\Common.xsd .\XSD\Employee.xsd .\XSD\Company.xsd /c /o:. /n:"DomainModel"