Question

Is there any way to serialize a property with an internal setter in C#?
I understand that this might be problematic – but if there is a way – I would like to know.

Example:

[Serializable] public class Person {     public int ID { get; internal set; }     public string Name { get; set; }     public int Age { get; set; } } 

Code that serializes an instance of the class Person:

Person person = new Person(); person.Age = 27; person.Name = 'Patrik'; person.ID = 1;  XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Person)); TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(@'c:\test.xml'); serializer.Serialize(writer, person); writer.Close(); 

Result (missing the ID property):

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> <Person xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'         xmlns:xsd='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'>   <Name>Patrik</Name>   <Age>27</Age> </Person> 

Answer 1

If it is an option, DataContractSerializer (.NET 3.0) can serialize non-public properties:

[DataContract] public class Person {     [DataMember]     public int ID { get; internal set; }     [DataMember]     public string Name { get; set; }     [DataMember]     public int Age { get; set; } } ... static void Main() {     Person person = new Person();     person.Age = 27;     person.Name = 'Patrik';     person.ID = 1;      DataContractSerializer serializer = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Person));     XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(@'c:\test.xml');     serializer.WriteObject(writer, person);     writer.Close(); } 

With the xml (re-formatted):

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> <Person xmlns:i='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'         xmlns='http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/'>     <Age>27</Age>     <ID>1</ID>     <Name>Patrik</Name> </Person>