Getting rid of an array name in C# XML Serialization

Question

I'm trying to get to this result while serializing XML:

<Root Name="blah">
  <SomeKey>Eldad</SomeKey>
  <Element>1</Element>
  <Element>2</Element>
  <Element>3</Element>
  <Element>4</Element>
</root>

Or in other words - I'm trying to contain an array within the "root" element, alongside additional keys.

This is my crude attempt:

[XmlRootAttribute(ElementName="Root", IsNullable=false)]
public class RootNode
{
    [XmlAttribute("Name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public string SomeKey { get; set; }

    [XmlArrayItem("Element")]
    public List<int> Elements { get; set; }
}

And my serialization:

string result;
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(root.GetType());
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(sb))
{
    serializer.Serialize(sw, root);
    result = sw.ToString();
}

However, this is my result (Removed the namespace for clarity):

<Root>
  <SomeKey>Eldad</SomeKey>
  <Elements>
    <Element>1</Element>
    <Element>2</Element>
    <Element>3</Element>
  </Elements>
</Root>

Is there any way to remove the "Elements" part?

Chris Taylor · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-06 10:52:07Z

19

Use XmlElement attribute on the Array, this will instruct the serializer to serialize the array items as child elements of the current element and not create a new root element for the array.

[XmlRootAttribute(ElementName="Root", IsNullable=false)] 
public class RootNode 
{ 
    [XmlAttribute("Name")] 
    public string Name { get; set; } 

    public string SomeKey { get; set; } 

    [XmlElement("Element")] 
    public List<int> Elements { get; set; } 
}

answered Sep 6, 2010 at 10:52

Chris Taylor

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1 Comment

Nolmë Informatique Over a year ago

With a Dictionary, this don't work because we need to manually browse items. :(

Simon White · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-04 07:47:53Z

Thanks to Chris Taylor for the answer to my problem too. Using an asmx web service, I was getting the following XML:

<Manufacturers>
    <Manufacturer>
        <string>Bosch</string>
        <string>Siemens</string>
    </Manufacturer>
</Manufacturers>

I wanted to get the manufacturer names directly in the the element, getting rid of the element like this:

<Manufacturers>
    <Manufacturer>Bosch</Manufacturer>
    <Manufacturer>Siemens</Manufacturer>
</Manufacturers>

For anyone else with the same problem, my code to achieve this (in VB.Net) is:

<WebMethod()> _
Public Function GetManufacturers() As Manufacturers
    Dim result As New Manufacturers
    result.Manufacturer.Add("Bosch")
    result.Manufacturer.Add("Siemens")
    Return result
End Function

<XmlRoot(ElementName:="Manufacturers")> _
Public Class Manufacturers
    <XmlElement("Manufacturer")> _
    Public Manufacturer As New List(Of String)
End Class

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