Question

I want to save records fetched from database in an XML file,
take x number of records from XML file into a custom collection List<T>
process them and save updated items back into XML file.

‘T’ is a simple object with value type properties, something like –

public class T
{
   public int Id {get; set;}
   public string property1 {get; set;}
   public string property2 {get; set;}
}

Please guide me how can I save custom collection List<T> to XML file and vice-versa?

Also, because I am not sending out this XML file, will it make sense to go for XmlSerializer as suggested in some of the replies?

Answer 1

While you could use a serializer – and many times this is the right answer – I personally would use Linq to XML which would allow you to be more flexible on how your XML should look like, i.e. to create the following XML from a collection foos based on your class:

<Foos>
  <foo Id="1" property1="someprop1" property2="someprop2" />
  <foo Id="1" property1="another" property2="third" />
</Foos>

You could use:

var xml = new XElement("Foos", foos.Select( x=> new XElement("foo", 
                                                new XAttribute("Id", x.Id), 
                                                new XAttribute("property1", x.property1), 
                                                new XAttribute("property2", x.property2))));