C# – XmlSerialization Collection as Array

cnetxml-serialization

I'm trying to serialize a custom class that needs to use multiple elements of the same name.
I've tried using xmlarray, but it wraps them in another elements.

I want my xml to look like this.

<root>
     <trees>some text</trees>
     <trees>some more text</trees>
</root>

My code:

[Serializable(), XmlRoot("root")]
public class test
{
      [XmlArray("trees")]
      public ArrayList MyProp1 = new ArrayList();

      public test()
      {
           MyProp1.Add("some text");
           MyProp1.Add("some more text");  
      }
}

Best Answer

Try just using [XmlElement("trees")]:

[Serializable(), XmlRoot("root")]
public class test
{
    [XmlElement("trees")]
    public List<string> MyProp1 = new List<string>();

    public test()
    {
        MyProp1.Add("some text");
        MyProp1.Add("some more text");
    }
}

Note I changed ArrayList to List<string> to clean up the output; in 1.1, StringCollection would be another option, although that has different case-sensitivity rules.

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