Edit Object with xml without creating new Instance

Question

I have a class which needs to be a Singleton. It must also be able to load and save its field data in an xml file.

The following method will return a new instance,

Answer 1

why dont you have something like

public Class TheClassHoldingYourObject
{
    private static XmlSerializer _instance;
    public static Settings Load() 
    { 
        if(_instance != null) return _instance
        using (Stream stream = File.OpenRead(FileName)) 
        { 
              XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Settings)); 
              return (Settings)serializer.Deserialize(stream); 
        } 
    }
 }

Now you will always get the same instance