Question

I was asked the following question in interview:

• Explain XML Serialization.

I have no idea what XML Serialization is. I looked at some sites, but I couldn’t find any (short & clear) explanation about XML Serialization.

Could someone explain what XML Serialization is? It would help so I can have a clear picture on XML Serialization and be ready to face future interviews with confidence whenever this question is asked..

Answer 1

Lets say you have a class like this:

Public class Person
{
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public int age { get; set; }
}

and an object of this class like this:

Person Student = new Person();
Student.FirstName = "John";
Student.LastName = "Smith";
Student.age= 24;

Then when you xml serialize the object Student. You will get as an output an XML file with the following:

<Person>
    <FirstName>John</FirstName>
     <LastName >Smith</LastName >
    <age>24</age>  
</Person>

You can deserialize the XML to get the original object as an output.

So it is kind of a conversion between classes and XML
BTW XML files are usualy text files