How to Deserialize XML document

Question

How do I Deserialize this XML document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Cars>   <Car>     <StockNumber>1020</StockNumber>     <Make>Nissan</Make>     <Model>Sentra</Model>   </Car>   <Car>     <StockNumber>1010</StockNumber>     <Make>Toyota</Make>     <Model>Corolla</Model>   </Car>   <Car>     <StockNumber>1111</StockNumber>     <Make>Honda</Make>     <Model>Accord</Model>   </Car> </Cars> 

I have this:

[Serializable()] public class Car {     [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("StockNumber")]     public string StockNumber{ get; set; }      [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("Make")]     public string Make{ get; set; }      [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("Model")]     public string Model{ get; set; } } 

.

[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute("Cars", Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)] public class Cars {     [XmlArrayItem(typeof(Car))]     public Car[] Car { get; set; }  } 

.

public class CarSerializer {     public Cars Deserialize()     {         Cars[] cars = null;         string path = HttpContext.Current.ApplicationInstance.Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/") + "cars.xml";          XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Cars[]));          StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(path);         reader.ReadToEnd();         cars = (Cars[])serializer.Deserialize(reader);         reader.Close();          return cars;     } } 

that don't seem to work :-(

Answer 1

How about you just save the xml to a file, and use xsd to generate C# classes?

1. Write the file to disk (I named it foo.xml)
2. Generate the xsd: xsd foo.xml
3. Generate the C#: xsd foo.xsd /classes

Et voila - and C# code file that should be able to read the data via XmlSerializer:

    XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Cars));     Cars cars;     using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(path))     {         cars = (Cars) ser.Deserialize(reader);     } 

(include the generated foo.cs in the project)

Answer 2

Here's a working version. I changed the XmlElementAttribute labels to XmlElement because in the xml the StockNumber, Make and Model values are elements, not attributes. Also I removed the reader.ReadToEnd(); (that function reads the whole stream and returns a string, so the Deserialize() function couldn't use the reader anymore...the position was at the end of the stream). I also took a few liberties with the naming :).

Here are the classes:

[Serializable()] public class Car {     [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement("StockNumber")]     public string StockNumber { get; set; }      [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement("Make")]     public string Make { get; set; }      [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement("Model")]     public string Model { get; set; } }   [Serializable()] [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRoot("CarCollection")] public class CarCollection {     [XmlArray("Cars")]     [XmlArrayItem("Car", typeof(Car))]     public Car[] Car { get; set; } } 

The Deserialize function:

CarCollection cars = null; string path = "cars.xml";  XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(CarCollection));  StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(path); cars = (CarCollection)serializer.Deserialize(reader); reader.Close(); 

And the slightly tweaked xml (I needed to add a new element to wrap <Cars>...Net is picky about deserializing arrays):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <CarCollection> <Cars>   <Car>     <StockNumber>1020</StockNumber>     <Make>Nissan</Make>     <Model>Sentra</Model>   </Car>   <Car>     <StockNumber>1010</StockNumber>     <Make>Toyota</Make>     <Model>Corolla</Model>   </Car>   <Car>     <StockNumber>1111</StockNumber>     <Make>Honda</Make>     <Model>Accord</Model>   </Car> </Cars> </CarCollection>