How to serialize an object into XML

How can I serialize开发者_StackOverflow a .net object into XML and then de-serialize it back?

In VB.Net you would first add some attributes to your class (if needed)

Public Class Class1

    <XmlAttribute("value")>
    Public Property Value As String

    <XmlElement("name")>
    Public Property Name As String

End Class

And then serialize it using

Dim p As New Class1()
p.Name = "test"
Dim sw1 = New StringWriter()
Dim xs1 As New XmlSerializer(GetType(Class1))
xs1.Serialize(New XmlTextWriter(sw1), p)
Console.WriteLine(sw1.ToString())

This is possible with Object and string extension methods.

using System.IO;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace XmlExtensionMethods
{

/// <summary>
/// Provides extension methods useful for XML Serialization and deserialization.
/// </summary>
public static class XMLExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Extension method that takes objects and serialized them.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T">The type of the object to be serialized.</typeparam>
    /// <param name="source">The object to be serialized.</param>
    /// <returns>A string that represents the serialized XML.</returns>
    public static string SerializeXML<T>(this T source) where T : class, new()
    {
        source.CheckNull("Object to be serialized.");

        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
        using (var writer = new StringWriter())
        {
            serializer.Serialize(writer, source);
            return writer.ToString();
        }
    }


/// <summary>
    /// Extension method to string which attempts to deserialize XML with the same name as the source string.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T">The type which to be deserialized to.</typeparam>
    /// <param name="XML">The source string</param>
    /// <returns>The deserialized object, or null if unsuccessful.</returns>
    public static T DeserializeXML<T>(this string XML) where T : class, new()
    {
        XML.CheckNull("XML-string");

        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
        using (var reader = new StringReader(XML))
        {
            try { return (T)serializer.Deserialize(reader); }
            catch { return null; } // Could not be deserialized to this type.
        }
    }
}

}
}

You could use it like this:

string savestring;

public void Save()
{
     savestring = mySerializableObject.SerializeXML<MySerializableClass>();
}

public void Load()
{
     mySerializableObject  = savestring.DeserializeXML<MySerializableClass>();
}

PS: I do not take credit for these extension methods.

VB.NET

Public Shared Function SerializeObj(obj As Object) As String
    Dim xs As New System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(obj.GetType)
    Dim w As New IO.StringWriter
    xs.Serialize(w, obj)
    Return w.ToString
End Function

Going back is a little more complicated, you would declare an xml document and pull the data out of that.