XML Serialize boolean as 0 and 1

Question

The XML Schema Part 2 specifies that an instance of a datatype that is defined as boolean can have the following legal literals {true, false, 1, 0}. The following XML, for example, when deserialized, sets the boolean property "Emulate" to true.

<root>     <emulate>1</emulate> </root> 

However, when I serialize the object back to the XML, I get true instead of the numerical value. My question is, is there a way that I can control the boolean representation in the XML?

Answer 1

You can also do this by using some XmlSerializer attribute black magic:

[XmlIgnore] public bool MyValue { get; set; }  /// <summary>Get a value purely for serialization purposes</summary> [XmlElement("MyValue")] public string MyValueSerialize {     get { return this.MyValue ? "1" : "0"; }     set { this.MyValue = XmlConvert.ToBoolean(value); } } 

You can also use other attributes to hide this member from intellisense if you're offended by it! It's not a perfect solution, but it can be quicker than implementing IXmlSerializable.

Answer 2

You can implement IXmlSerializable which will allow you to alter the serialized output of your class however you want. This will entail creating the 3 methods GetSchema(), ReadXml(XmlReader r) and WriteXml(XmlWriter r). When you implement the interface, these methods are called instead of .NET trying to serialize the object itself.

Examples can be found at:

http://www.developerfusion.co.uk/show/4639/ and

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.serialization.ixmlserializable.aspx