C# XML Serialization un-nested arrays/list

Question

I'm writing a C# WinForm application that should read a pre-existant XML file. I need to parse the XML file and build up a data structure to reflect the XML file content. I have some experience in XML serialization an thus I tought to use the .NET XML.Serialization features. I got stuck in a strange XML structure that I'm unable to match within the class (trough attributes, elements and so on):

<sheet number="1" name="/" tstamps="/">
  <title_block>
    <title>ECC Push-Pull</title>
    <company/>
    <rev>0.1</rev>
    <date>Sat 21 Mar 2015</date>
    <source>ecc83-pp.sch</source>
    <comment number="1" value=""/>
    <comment number="2" value=""/>
    <comment number="3" value=""/>
    <comment number="4" value=""/>
  </title_block>
</sheet>

The 'weird' part of this is the list of comments. I'm used to find such 'repeating' items as a result of serialization of a list/array of elements with XmlArray directive. Using such approach anyway would introduce a surrouding tag to include the list of items. In this case how can I 'reflect' this structure? This's the code that I should use (without the 'missing' comments):

[XmlRoot("sheet")]
public class Sheet
{
    [XmlAttribute("number")]
    public int Number { get; }

    [XmlAttribute("name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute("tstamps")]
    public UInt32 TimeStamps { get; set; }

    [XmlElement]
    public SheetTitle Title { get; set; }

    public Sheet()
    {
        Title = new SheetTitle();
    }
}


[XmlRoot("title_block")]
public class SheetTitle
{
    [XmlElement("title")]
    public string Title { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("company")]
    public string Company { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("rev")]
    public string Revision { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("date")]
    public DateTime Date { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("source")]
    public string Source { get; set; }

    public SheetTitle()
    {
        Date = DateTime.Now;
    }
}

[XmlRoot("comment")]
public class Comment
{
    [XmlAttribute("number")]
    public int Number { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute("value")]
    public string Value { get; set; }
}

I have another side question. The best class hierarchy to reflect this structure is: a) nesting the classes in the same way of the xml elements b) keep all classes at the same level (without a hierarchy)? There are side effects to keep into account ?

We hope that your issue has been solved. If not, maybe think about updating your question.... meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5234/… — User9995555
– User9995555, Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 20:55

User9995555 · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-02 15:25:46Z

Try this...

Usings

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

Classes

[XmlRoot(ElementName = "comment")]
public class Comment
{
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "number")]
    public string Number { get; set; }
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "value")]
    public string Value { get; set; }
}

[XmlRoot(ElementName = "title_block")]
public class Title_block
{
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "title")]
    public string Title { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "company")]
    public string Company { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "rev")]
    public string Rev { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "date")]
    public string Date { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "source")]
    public string Source { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "comment")]
    public List<Comment> Comment { get; set; }
}

[XmlRoot(ElementName = "sheet")]
public class Sheet
{
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "title_block")]
    public Title_block Title_block { get; set; }
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "number")]
    public string Number { get; set; }
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "tstamps")]
    public string Tstamps { get; set; }
}

Code

try
{
    XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
    xmlDoc.Load("xml.xml");

    string XML = xmlDoc.InnerXml.ToString();
    byte[] BUFXML = ASCIIEncoding.UTF8.GetBytes(XML);
    MemoryStream ms1 = new MemoryStream(BUFXML);

    XmlSerializer DeserializerPlaces = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Sheet));
    using (XmlReader reader = new XmlTextReader(ms1))
    {
        Sheet dezerializedXML = (Sheet)DeserializerPlaces.Deserialize(reader);

    }// Put a break-point here, then mouse-over dezerializedXML and you should have you values
}
catch (System.Exception)
{
    throw;
}

This code reads your xml from a file (called xml.xml in the application *.exe folder) then dezerialize it to an object called dezerializedXML....

Hari Prasad · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-02 08:29:10Z

You could define your C# objects as follows.

[XmlRoot(ElementName="comment")]
public class Comment {
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName="number")]
    public string Number { get; set; }
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName="value")]
    public string Value { get; set; }
}

[XmlRoot(ElementName="title_block")]
public class Title_block {
    [XmlElement(ElementName="title")]
    public string Title { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName="company")]
    public string Company { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName="rev")]
    public string Rev { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName="date")]
    public string Date { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName="source")]
    public string Source { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName="comment")]
    public List<Comment> Comment { get; set; }
}

[XmlRoot(ElementName="sheet")]
public class Sheet {
    [XmlElement(ElementName="title_block")]
    public Title_block Title_block { get; set; }
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName="number")]
    public string Number { get; set; }
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName="name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName="tstamps")]
    public string Tstamps { get; set; }
}

Now we can use these entities to Deserialize given Xml.

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Sheet));

StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(filepath);
var sheet = (Sheet)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
reader.Close();

Check this Demo code

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