How to Deserialize XML to Object in C#

Abdullahi Salawudeen Feb 02, 2024

Csharp Csharp Object

Use Manually Typed Classes to Deserialize XML File to C# Object
Use the Paste Special Feature of Visual Studio to Deserialize Xml to C# Object
Use the XSD tool to Deserialize XML to C# Object

This article will demonstrate the conversion or deserializing of XML files into the C# object.

Use Manually Typed Classes to Deserialize XML File to C# Object

C# is associated with classes and objects along with attributes and methods.
Objects are represented with classes programmatically, such as John or James.
Attributes are characteristics of objects such as the color of a car, year of production, age of a person, or color of a building.
XML is the standardized format that allows XML data to be parsed irrespective of the medium of transmitting the XML file.

Further discussion is available via this reference.

Below is an XML code sample that would be converted to a C# object.

1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2. <Company xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
3.  <Employee name="x" age="30" />
4.  <Employee name="y" age="32" />
5. </Company>

A class with a similar structure would be created in C# to convert the XML code sample.

using System.Xml.Serialization;

[XmlRoot(ElementName = "Company")]
public class Company

{
  public Company() {
    Employees = new List<Employee>();
  }

  [XmlElement(ElementName = "Employee")]
  public List<Employee> Employees { get; set; }

  public Employee this[string name] {
    get {
      return Employees.FirstOrDefault(
          s => string.Equals(s.Name, name, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase));
    }
  }
}

public class Employee {
  [XmlAttribute("name")]
  public string Name { get; set; }

  [XmlAttribute("age")] public string Age { get; set; }
}

The final step to convert the XML object to C# is to use the System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer function to serialize the object.

public T DeserializeToObject<T>(string filepath)
    where T : class {
  System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer ser =
      new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

  using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(filepath)) {
    return (T)ser.Deserialize(sr);
  }
}

Use the `Paste Special` Feature of Visual Studio to Deserialize `Xml` to C# Object

This method requires using the Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 and above with .Net Framework 4.5 and above. The WCF workload for Visual Studio must also be installed.

The content of the XML document must be copied to the clipboard.
Add a new empty class to the project solution.
Open the new class file.
Click on the Edit button on the menu bar of the IDE.
Select Paste Special from the dropdown.
Click on Paste XML As Classes.

Paste XML As Classes

To use the class generated by Visual Studio, create the Helpers class.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Web.Script.Serialization;  // Add reference: System.Web.Extensions
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace Helpers {
  internal static class ParseHelpers

  {
    private static JavaScriptSerializer json;
    private static JavaScriptSerializer JSON {
      get { return json ?? (json = new JavaScriptSerializer()); }
    }

    public static Stream ToStream(this string @this) {
      var stream = new MemoryStream();
      var writer = new StreamWriter(stream);
      writer.Write(@this);
      writer.Flush();
      stream.Position = 0;
      return stream;
    }

    public static T ParseXML<T>(this string @this)
        where T : class {
      var reader = XmlReader.Create(
          @this.Trim().ToStream(),
          new XmlReaderSettings() { ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Document });
      return new XmlSerializer(typeof(T)).Deserialize(reader) as T;
    }

    public static T ParseJSON<T>(this string @this)
        where T : class {
      return JSON.Deserialize<T>(@this.Trim());
    }
  }
}

Use the `XSD tool` to Deserialize `XML` to C# Object

XSD is used to automatically generate classes or objects equivalent to the schema defined in an XML file or document.

XSD.exe is normally found in the path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\{version}\bin\NETFX {version} Tools\. Further discussion is available via this reference.

Suppose the XML file is saved in this path: C:\X\test.XML.

Below are the steps to follow to deserialize the XML to C# classes automatically:

Type Developer Command Prompt into the search bar and click on it to open.
Type cd C:\X to navigate to the XML file path.
Remove line numbers and any unnecessary characters in the XML file.
Type xsd test.XML to create an XSD file equivalent from the test.XML.
A test.XSD file is created in the same file path.
Type XSD /c test.XSD to create the C# classes equivalent to the XML file.
A test.cs file is created, a C# class with an exact schema of the XML file.

Output:

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <auto-generated>
//     This code was generated by a tool.
//     Runtime Version:4.0.30319.42000
//
//     Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if
//     the code is regenerated.
// </auto-generated>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

using System.Xml.Serialization;

//
// This source code was auto-generated by xsd, Version=4.8.3928.0.
//

/// <remarks/>
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("xsd", "4.8.3928.0")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType=true)]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(Namespace="", IsNullable=false)]
public partial class Company {

    private CompanyEmployee[] itemsField;

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("Employee", Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public CompanyEmployee[] Items {
        get {
            return this.itemsField;
        }
        set {
            this.itemsField = value;
        }
    }
}

/// <remarks/>
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("xsd", "4.8.3928.0")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType=true)]
public partial class CompanyEmployee {

    private string nameField;

    private string ageField;

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute()]
    public string name {
        get {
            return this.nameField;
        }
        set {
            this.nameField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute()]
    public string age {
        get {
            return this.ageField;
        }
        set {
            this.ageField = value;
        }
    }
}

Author: Abdullahi Salawudeen

Abdullahi is a full-stack developer and technical writer with over 5 years of experience designing and implementing enterprise applications. He loves taking on new challenges and believes conceptual programming theories should be implemented in reality.

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Use Manually Typed Classes to Deserialize XML File to C# Object

Use the Paste Special Feature of Visual Studio to Deserialize Xml to C# Object

Use the XSD tool to Deserialize XML to C# Object

Related Article - Csharp Object

Use the `Paste Special` Feature of Visual Studio to Deserialize `Xml` to C# Object

Use the `XSD tool` to Deserialize `XML` to C# Object