Serialize object to string

Question

I am trying to serialize an object(s) to an XML string. I want to do this without ever actually creating an .xml file. The way I do it works, and seems to be fine. I just want to make  sure that there is not something I have overlooked. If anyone has a better way of doing it I would appreciate the help. Here is my code:

 

String XmlizedString = null;

XmlSerializer x = new XmlSerializer(Inv.GetType());

MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();

XmlTextWriter xmlTextWriter = new XmlTextWriter(memoryStream, Encoding.UTF8);

x.Serialize(xmlTextWriter, Inv);

memoryStream = (MemoryStream)xmlTextWriter.BaseStream;

UTF8Encoding encoding = new UTF8Encoding();

XmlizedString = encoding.GetString(memoryStream.ToArray());

XmlizedString = XmlizedString.Substring(1);

Answer 1

As XmlSerializer.Serialize accepts a TextWriter, you can simply use a StringWriter:

public static string SerializeToString(object obj)   {    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());      using (StringWriter writer = new StringWriter())    {     serializer.Serialize(writer, obj);       return writer.ToString();    }   }

Answer 2

Hey thanks. That is a lot less code than mine. Just what I was looking for. thanks again

Answer 3

I just tried that and it worked. But when I wrote it back to an .xml file to see if everything was ok it gave an error:  Any ideas? I know I said I wouldnt write to xml file, but I am going to need this to be valid xml so I can deserialize it. I can load it into an xmldocument object. I will have to further test to see if it can be deserialized. Any idea why i cant write to .xml file.. thanks.

 

 

Switch from current encoding to specified encoding not supported. Error processing resource 'file:///C:/a/test.xml'. L...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>

Answer 4

How are you saving it to and loading it from a XML file (ie post code)?

I tried just loading it into an XmlDocument and it worked fine.

Answer 5

I tried like this:

 

XmlTextWriter who = new XmlTextWriter(@"c:\a\test.xml", Encoding.UTF8);

who.WriteRaw(XmlizedString);

who.Close();

I also tried this:

 

 

StreamWriter j = new StreamWriter(@"c:\a\test.xml");

 j.Write(XmlizedString);

 j.Close();

 

both gave that same error message. What would be the best way to deserilize this string back into an object? THanks for all the help.

Answer 6

Oh, it's Internet Explorer giving that error?

The problem is that the XML file is stating that its encoding is in UTF-16, yet the file is written out using UTF-8.

Instead, use the following:

XmlTextWriter who = new XmlTextWriter(@"c:\a\test.xml", Encoding.Unicode);

Answer 7

Oh that worked.. your genius. Thanks for the help I really appreciate it. Any easy way of deserializing that string?

Answer 8

You just need to work backwards, ie use a StringReader. You could also get tricky and using generics to avoid casting:

public static T SerializeFromString<T>(string xml)   {    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));       using (StringReader reader = new StringReader(xml))    {     return (T)serializer.Deserialize(reader);    }   }

This allows you do the following:

int value = 12;    string xml = SerializeToString(value);       value = SerializeFromString<Int32>(xml);    Console.WriteLine(value);

Answer 9

Thanks dude, works perfectly!

Answer 10

Thanks for your discussion, guys... it saved me hours of searching.