Question

I need to create an object that can be deserialised from this XML

  <Item>
    <Description>Timber(dry)</Description>
    <Measure Type="VOLUME">
      <Value>1.779</Value>
      <Units>m3</Units>
    </Measure>
    <Measure Type="WEIGHT">
      <Value>925.08</Value>
      <Units>Kilogram</Units>
    </Measure>
    <Measure>
      <Value>1</Value>
      <Units>Units</Units>
    </Measure>
  </Item>

My Problem is the Measure, it needs to be a list of some sort but when i create a
list it serialises incorrectly

  <Item>
    <Description>Timber(dry)</Description>
    <Measures>   <--- Dont want this <Measures> tag
     <Measure Type="VOLUME">
      <Value>1.779</Value>
      <Units>m3</Units>
     </Measure>
     <Measure Type="WEIGHT">
      <Value>925.08</Value>
      <Units>Kilogram</Units>
     </Measure>
     <Measure>
      <Value>1</Value>
      <Units>Units</Units>
     </Measure>
   </Measures> <--- 
  </Item>

This is what i have so far

public class Item
  {
    public Item()
    {
      this.Measures = new List<Measure>();
    }    

    public string Description { get; set; }

    public List<Measure> Measures { get; set; }
  }

  public class Measure
  {

    public string Value { get; set; }

    public string Units { get; set; }

    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute()]
    public string Type { get; set; }
  }

Answer 1

You need to decorate the Measures property with the [XmlElement] attribute, to indicate to the serializer that it needs to be serialized (and deserialized) as (bare) elements, instead of them being wrapped in another element.

public class StackOverflow_13188624
{
    const string XML = @"  <Item>
                            <Description>Timber(dry)</Description>
                            <Measure Type=""VOLUME"">
                              <Value>1.779</Value>
                              <Units>m3</Units>
                            </Measure>
                            <Measure Type=""WEIGHT"">
                              <Value>925.08</Value>
                              <Units>Kilogram</Units>
                            </Measure>
                            <Measure>
                              <Value>1</Value>
                              <Units>Units</Units>
                            </Measure>
                          </Item>";

    public class Item
    {
        public Item()
        {
            this.Measures = new List<Measure>();
        }

        public string Description { get; set; }
        [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement(ElementName = "Measure")]
        public List<Measure> Measures { get; set; }
    }

    public class Measure
    {
        public string Value { get; set; }
        public string Units { get; set; }
        [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute()]
        public string Type { get; set; }
    }

    public static void Test()
    {
        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(XML));
        XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Item));
        Item item = (Item)xs.Deserialize(ms);
        Console.WriteLine(item.Measures);
    }
}