XML Serializer - Deserializing an XML array

Question

I have the following sample XML:

<PossibleAddresses>
    <Address tempid="12345">1 The Street England</Address>
    <Address tempid="6789">2 The Street England</Address>
    <Address tempid="4321">3 The Street England</Address>
    <Address tempid="1111">4 The Street England</Address>
</PossibleAddresses>

I am trying to deserialize this XML so that I essentially just get back a list of 'Address' objects that contains two properties. One being the 'tempid' the other being the actual address string itself.

My class looked something like this:

[XmlRoot("PossibleAddresses")]
    public class Addresses
    {
        [XmlArrayItem("Address", Type = typeof(Address))]
        public List<Address> PossibleAddresses { get; set; }
    }

    public class Address
    {
        [XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "tempid")]
        public string TempId { get; set; }

        [XmlElement(ElementName = "Address")]
        public string FullAddress { get; set; }
    }

I am then using the XmlSerializer to deserialize the XML. With T being the class 'Addresses':

public static T DeserializeObject<T>(string data)
        {
            var ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
            return (T)ser.Deserialize(new StringReader(data));
        }

Currently this will deserialize successfully. I just end up with an empty list of addresses.

You'll also need to change the decoration of PossibleAddresses to [XmlElement("Address", Type = typeof(Address))]public List<Address> PossibleAddresses { get; set; } — StuartLC
– StuartLC, Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 14:22

Martin Brown · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-20 14:01:17Z

3

FullAddress here should be with attribute XmlText

[XmlText]
public string FullAddress { get; set; }

edited Mar 20, 2015 at 14:01

Martin Brown

25.5k16 gold badges88 silver badges134 bronze badges

answered Mar 20, 2015 at 13:59

ivan.mylyanyk

2,1114 gold badges30 silver badges39 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Dustin Kingen · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-20 14:15:29Z

1

GoogleHireMe is correct that you need an XmlText attribute.

public class Address
{
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "tempid")]
    public string TempId { get; set; }
    [XmlText]
    public string FullAddress { get; set; }
}

However, you can deserialize the addresses directly as an array:

var serializer =
    new XmlSerializer(
        typeof(Address[]),
        new XmlRootAttribute("PossibleAddresses"));
Address[] items;

using(var stream = new StringReader(xml))
using(var reader = XmlReader.Create(stream))
{
    items = (Address[]) serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}

answered Mar 20, 2015 at 14:15

Dustin Kingen

21.4k7 gold badges55 silver badges94 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

XML Serializer - Deserializing an XML array

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related