.NET XML Serialization and inheritance

Question

I have structure like this:

public interface A
{
    public void method();
}

public class B : A
{
}

public class C : A
{
}

List list;

Answer 1

I would use an abstract class instead of an interface (as one cannot serialize a type of interface), then instead of hard coding the type using the XmlInclude attribute, I would add the known types to the XmlSerializer in the Serial and Deserialize methods like so:

    string listXml = Serialize>(ListA, new Type[] { typeof(B), typeof(C) });

    List NewList = Deserialize>(listXml, new Type[] { typeof(B), typeof(C) });

    private static T Deserialize(string Xml, Type[] KnownTypes)
    {
        XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T),KnownTypes);

        StringReader sr = new StringReader(Xml);
        return (T)xs.Deserialize(sr);
    }

    private static string Serialize(Object obj, Type[] KnownTypes)
    {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(sb))
        {
            XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T), KnownTypes);

            xs.Serialize(sw, obj);
        }
        return sb.ToString();
    }