Serialize an object to XML

Question

I have a C# class that I have inherited. I have successfully \"built\" the object. But I need to serialize the object to XML. Is there an easy way to do it?

It looks

Answer 1

Extension class:

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

namespace MyProj.Extensions
{
    public static class XmlExtension
    {
        public static string Serialize(this T value)
        {
            if (value == null) return string.Empty;

            var xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

            using (var stringWriter = new StringWriter())
            {
                using (var xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(stringWriter,new XmlWriterSettings{Indent = true}))
                {
                    xmlSerializer.Serialize(xmlWriter, value);
                    return stringWriter.ToString();
                }    
            }
        }
    }
}

Usage:

Foo foo = new Foo{MyProperty="I have been serialized"};

string xml = foo.Serialize();

Just reference the namespace holding your extension method in the file you would like to use it in and it'll work (in my example it would be: using MyProj.Extensions;)

Note that if you want to make the extension method specific to only a particular class(eg., Foo), you can replace the T argument in the extension method, eg.

public static string Serialize(this Foo value){...}