Question

I have a class that I instantiate to save or load xml data.

For example:

    serilizer = new ObjectSerializer();

    npcEntityData = serilizer.LoadNPCData(fileName);

goes to:

namespace TDIYCSharpLib
{
    public class ObjectSerializer
    {

        NPCBaseInfo NPC;
        MonsterBaseInfo monster;

        public void SaveNPCData(object objGraph, string fileName)
        {
            XmlSerializer xmlFormat = new XmlSerializer(typeof(NPCBaseInfo));

            using(Stream fileStream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None))
            {
                xmlFormat.Serialize(fileStream, objGraph);
            }
        }

        public NPCBaseInfo LoadNPCData(string fileName)
        {
            XmlSerializer xmlDeformat = new XmlSerializer(typeof(NPCBaseInfo));

            using (StreamReader fileStream = new StreamReader(fileName))
            {
                NPC = (NPCBaseInfo)xmlDeformat.Deserialize(fileStream);
            }

            return NPC;
        }

    }
}

This works as it is written; however, XmlSerializer’s need for typeof(SomeClass) means I have to provide this class with all of the possible classes that may need it as well as two specific methods to manipulate the data.
Like:

    public void SaveMonsterData(object objGraph, string fileName)
    {
        XmlSerializer xmlFormat = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MonsterBaseInfo));

        using (Stream fileStream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None))
        {
            xmlFormat.Serialize(fileStream, objGraph);
        }   
    }

It is doable and is just some simple copy and pasting, but seems like a lot of unnecessary work.

Answer 1

You can use generic methods, e.g.

public void SaveMonsterData<T>(T objGraph, string fileName)
{
    XmlSerializer xmlFormat = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
    using (Stream fileStream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None))
    {
        xmlFormat.Serialize(fileStream, objGraph);
    }       
}

public T LoadMonsterData<T>(string fileName)
{
    XmlSerializer xmlDeformat = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

    T t;
    using (StreamReader fileStream = new StreamReader(fileName))
    {
        t = (T)xmlDeformat.Deserialize(fileStream);
    }

    return t;
}

If you had a class called Npc, you would use the method like this:

Npc npc;
SaveMonsterData<Npc>(npc, fileName);