Deserialize XML to Object Array

Question

I'm trying to deserialize an XML file to an object array, but I'm receiving empty objects. My question looks similar to this: How to Deserialize xml to an array of objects? but I can't seem to create a class which inherits IXmlSerializable. That said, I don't think that approach is necessary.

Am I doing something wrong?

File Object

 [XmlType("file")]
    public class File
    {
        [XmlElement("id")]
        public string Id { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("company_name")]
        public string Company_Name { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("docs")]
        public HashSet<doc> Docs { get; set; }
    }

Doc Object

 [XmlType("doc")]
    public class Doc
    {
        [XmlElement("valA")]
        public string ValA { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("valB")]
        public string ValB { get; set; }
    }

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <files>
    <file>
      <id>12345</id>
      <company_name>Apple</company_name>
      <docs>
       <doc>
          <valA>Info</valA>
          <valB>More Info</valB>
       </doc>  
      </docs>
    </file>
    <file>
      <id>12345</id>
      <company_name>Microsoft</company_name>
      <docs>
       <doc>
          <valA>Even More Info</valA>
          <valB>Lots of it</valB>
       </doc>  
      </docs>
    </file>
  </files>

Deserialization code

XmlSerializer mySerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(File[]), new XmlRootAttribute("files"));
using (FileStream myFileStream = new FileStream("Files.xml", FileMode.Open))
{
    File[] r;
    r = (File[])mySerializer.Deserialize(myFileStream);
}

Rohit Vats · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-18 17:52:45Z

11

You have decorated your properties with XMLAttribute but they are elements in your XML. So, change all XMLAttribute to XmlElement.

[XmlType("file")]
public class File
{
    [XmlElement("id")]
    public string Id { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("company_name")]
    public string Company_Id { get; set; }

    [XmlArray("docs")]
    public HashSet<Doc> Docs { get; set; }
}

[XmlType("doc")]
public class Doc
{
    [XmlElement("valA")]
    public string ValA { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("valB")]
    public string ValB { get; set; }
}

Also you XML is not well formed. I guess this is typo though -

<company_name>Apple</company_id>
<company_name>Microsoft</company_id>

Ending tag should be company_name -

<company_name>Apple</company_name>
<company_name>Microsoft</company_name>

answered Sep 18, 2013 at 17:52

Rohit Vats

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4 Comments

James Stevenson Over a year ago

I tried changing it to element, still returns blank array. Yeah, just a typo for the ending tag.

Rohit Vats Over a year ago

I tried this and it worked perfectly fine for me. Also public HashSet<doc> Docs { get; set; } should be public HashSet<Doc> Docs { get; set; }

Rohit Vats Over a year ago

Id and Company_Id are these also null?

James Stevenson Over a year ago

Ah, it works now. The key part was the attribute->element change. There was also a typo. Thanks!

Anirudha · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-18 18:19:00Z

4

I would use xml parser..

XDocument doc=XDocument.Load(url);
File[] r=doc.Elements("file")
            .Select(f=>
             new File
             {
                  Id=f.Element("id").Value,
                  Company_Id=f.Element("company_name").Value,
                  Docs=new HashSet<Docs>(
                       f.Elements("docs")
                        .Elements("doc")
                        .Select(d=>
                              new Doc
                              {
                                   ValA=d.Element("valA").Value,
                                   ValB=d.Element("valB").Value
                              }))
                }).ToArray();

edited Sep 18, 2013 at 18:19

answered Sep 18, 2013 at 17:57

Anirudha

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