When using XML serialization in C#, I use code like this:
public MyObject LoadData()
{
XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyObject));
using (TextReader reader = new StreamReader(settingsFileName))
{
return (MyObject)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
}
(and similar code for deserialization).
It requires casting and is not really nice. Is there a way, directly in .NET Framework, to use generics with serialization? That is to say to write something like:
public MyObject LoadData()
{
// Generics here.
XmlSerializer<MyObject> xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer();
using (TextReader reader = new StreamReader(settingsFileName))
{
// No casts nevermore.
return xmlSerializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
}
An addition to @Oded, you can make the method Generic aswell:
public T ConvertXml<T>(string xml)
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
return (T)serializer.Deserialize(new StringReader(xml));
}
This way you don't need to make the whole class generic and you can use it like this:
var result = ConvertXml<MyObject>(source);