How to serialize using XmlSerializer (LINQ to XML)

This article shows an example that serializes and deserializes using XmlSerializer in C# and Visual Basic.

Example: Create objects that contain XElement objects, then serialize and deserialize them

The following example creates a number of objects that contain XElement objects. It then serializes them to a memory stream, and then deserializes them from the memory stream.

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

public class XElementContainer
{
    public XElement member;

    public XElementContainer()
    {
        member = XLinqTest.CreateXElement();
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return member.ToString();
    }
}

public class XElementNullContainer
{
    public XElement member;

    public XElementNullContainer()
    {
    }
}

class XLinqTest
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Test<XElementNullContainer>(new XElementNullContainer());
        Test<XElement>(CreateXElement());
        Test<XElementContainer>(new XElementContainer());
    }

    public static XElement CreateXElement()
    {
        XNamespace ns = "http://www.adventure-works.com";
        return new XElement(ns + "aw");
    }

    static void Test<T>(T obj)
    {
        using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
        {
            XmlSerializer s = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
            Console.WriteLine("Testing for type: {0}", typeof(T));
            s.Serialize(XmlWriter.Create(stream), obj);
            stream.Flush();
            stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
            object o = s.Deserialize(XmlReader.Create(stream));
            Console.WriteLine("  Deserialized type: {0}", o.GetType());
        }
    }
}

Imports System
Imports System.Xml
Imports System.Xml.Linq
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Runtime.Serialization
Imports System.Xml.Serialization

Public Class XElementContainer
    Public member As XElement

    Public Sub XElementContainer()
        member = XLinqTest.CreateXElement()
    End Sub

    Overrides Function ToString() As String
        Return member.ToString()
    End Function
End Class

Public Class XElementNullContainer
    Public member As XElement

    Public Sub XElementNullContainer()
        member = Nothing
    End Sub
End Class

Public Class XLinqTest
    Shared Sub Main()
        Test(Of XElementNullContainer)(New XElementNullContainer())
        Test(Of XElement)(CreateXElement())
        Test(Of XElementContainer)(New XElementContainer())
    End Sub

    Public Shared Function CreateXElement() As XElement
        Dim ns As XNamespace = "http://www.adventure-works.com"
        Return New XElement(ns + "aw")
    End Function

    Public Shared Sub Test(Of T)(ByRef obj)
        Using stream As New MemoryStream()
            Dim s As XmlSerializer = New XmlSerializer(GetType(T))
            Console.WriteLine("Testing for type: {0}", GetType(T))
            s.Serialize(XmlWriter.Create(stream), obj)
            stream.Flush()
            stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin)
            Dim o As Object = s.Deserialize(XmlReader.Create(stream))
            Console.WriteLine("  Deserialized type: {0}", o.GetType())
        End Using
    End Sub
End Class

This example produces the following output:

Testing for type: XElementNullContainer
  Deserialized type: XElementNullContainer
Testing for type: System.Xml.Linq.XElement
  Deserialized type: System.Xml.Linq.XElement
Testing for type: XElementContainer
  Deserialized type: XElementContainer