C# XML Serialization XMLElement without tag

Question

I have the following class:

[Serializable]
public class SomeModel
{
    [XmlElement("CustomerName")]
    public string CustomerName { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("")]
    public int CustomerAge { get; set; }
}

Which (when populated with some test data) and Serialized using XmlSerializer.Serialize() results in the following XML:

<SomeModel>
  <CustomerName>John</CustomerName>
  <CustomerAge>55</CustomerAge>
</SomeModel>

What I need to have is:

<SomeModel>
  <CustomerName>John</CustomerName>
   55
</SomeModel>

Meaning for the 2nd xmlelement, it should not have its own tag. Is this even possible? Thank you.

Why you want do that? When you convert back this xml to class SameModel it will be without CustomerAge. — M. Wiśnicki, Sep 14 '16 at 07:27
Have you tried `[XmlText]`? See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9504150/serialize-a-c-sharp-class-to-xml-with-attributes-and-a-single-value-for-the-clas — dbc, Sep 14 '16 at 07:37
[Serializable] is unnecessary with XmlSerializer. It is used to instruct BinaryFormatter. — Mauro Sampietro, Sep 14 '16 at 08:20
Thanks, but I hit "There was an error reflecting type" when serializing — Lor Kam Hoi, Sep 14 '16 at 09:20

sachin · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-14T09:38:54.007

4

Decorate CustomerAge with XmlText instead of XmlElement.

You'll also have to change the type of CustomerAge from int to string and If you don't want to, you'll have to take an extra property for serialization like this:

public class SomeModel
{
    [XmlElement("CustomerName")]
    public string CustomerName { get; set; }

    [XmlText]
    public string CustomerAgeString { get { return CustomerAge.ToString(); } set { throw new NotSupportedException("Setting the CustomerAgeString property is not supported"); } }

    [XmlIgnore]
    public string CustomerAge { get; set; }
}

edited Sep 14 '16 at 09:38

answered Sep 14 '16 at 07:38

sachin

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Thanks, but I hit "There was an error reflecting type" when serializing – Lor Kam Hoi Sep 14 '16 at 09:19
Is it possible for you to Change type of CustomerAge to String from int? – sachin Sep 14 '16 at 09:32
Thanks so much! You're a lifesaver! – Lor Kam Hoi Sep 14 '16 at 09:47

C# XML Serialization XMLElement without tag

1 Answers1