Question

So I’m working with some XML files that I believe are most likely badly formed, and I’m trying to figure out how and if I can use the XmlSerializer to deserialize this XML into a logical business object. Let’s say I have the following XML file:

<Root>    <ArrayType1 Name='Bob'/>    <ArrayType1 Name='Jim'/>    <ArrayType2 Name='Frank'>       <SubItem Value='4'/>    </ArrayType2>    <ArrayType2 Name='Jimbo'>       <SubItem Value='2'/>    </ArrayType2> </Root> 

Now I’d like to create a class that has these three types, Root, ArrayType1 and ArrayType2, but I’d like to get two lists in Root, one containing a collection of ArrayType1 items, and one containing a collection of ArrayType2 items, but it seems that these items need to have some sort of root, for example, I know how to deserialize the following just fine:

<Root>    <ArrayType1Collection>       <ArrayType1 Name='Bob'/>       <ArrayType1 Name='Jim'/>    </ArrayType1Collection>    <ArrayType2Collection>       <ArrayType2 Name='Frank'>          <SubItem Value='4'/>       </ArrayType2>       <ArrayType2 Name='Jimbo'>          <SubItem Value='2'/>       </ArrayType2>    </ArrayType2Collection> </Root> 

But how would I deserialize this without the parent ArrayType#Collection elements surrounding the ArrayType# elements?

Will the XML Serializer even allow this at all?

Answer 1

Isn’t that just:

[Serializable] public class Root {     [XmlElement('ArrayType1')]     public List<ArrayType1> ArrayType1 {get;set;}      [XmlElement('ArrayType2')]     public List<ArrayType2> ArrayType2 {get;set;} } 

?

Alternatively, just put the xml into a file (‘foo.xml’) and use:

xsd foo.xml xsd foo.xsd /classes 

and look at the generated foo.cs