XML Serialization issue

Ajay Patel

Hello,

When I serialize the XML with tag name including colon, then I get following result after serialization

_x003A_11 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
A1:A#
A2
A3
_x003A_11>

I have following code to generate this XML.

test tc = new test() { str1 = "A1:A#", str2 = "A2", str3 = "A3" };
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(test));
var memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
var streamWriter = new StreamWriter(memoryStream, System.Text.Encoding.Unicode);
serializer.Serialize(streamWriter,tc);
Byte[] utf8EncodedXml = memoryStream.ToArray();
var stream = new StreamReader(new MemoryStream(utf8EncodedXml));
var cs = stream.ReadToEnd();

[XmlRoot("Test:11")]
    public class test
    {
        public string str1 { get; set; }
        public string str2 { get; set; }
        public string str3 { get; set; }
    }

7 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Vulpes13y ago
Accepted answer
On the first point, there has to be a definition of the Test namespace for it to be a valid XML document, so you can't just change it to xsi.

However, what you can do is to add another namespace for xsi whose URL can be anything you like as long as it's not the same as Test:

[XmlRoot("tst", Namespace = "http://www.c-sharpcorner.com")]
public class test
{
[XmlElement(Namespace = "")]
public string str1 { get; set; }
[XmlElement(Namespace = "")]
public string str2 { get; set; }
[XmlElement(Namespace = "")]
public string str3 { get; set; }
}

class Program
{
static void Main()
{
var ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
ns.Add("Test", "http://www.c-sharpcorner.com");
ns.Add("xsi", "http://www.google.com"); // or whatever
test tc = new test() { str1 = "A1:A#", str2 = "A2", str3 = "A3" };
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(test));
var memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
var streamWriter = new StreamWriter(memoryStream, System.Text.Encoding.Unicode);
serializer.Serialize(streamWriter, tc, ns);
Byte[] utf8EncodedXml = memoryStream.ToArray();
var stream = new StreamReader(new MemoryStream(utf8EncodedXml));
var cs = stream.ReadToEnd();
Console.WriteLine(cs);
Console.ReadKey();
}
}

The output now is:

A1:A#
A2
A3

On the second point, you need to introduce another class, tg, and another namespace, tag, as follows:

[XmlRoot("tst", Namespace = "http://www.c-sharpcorner.com")]
public class test
{
[XmlElement(Namespace = "http://www.microsoft.com")]
public tg tg {get; set; }
}

public class tg
{
[XmlElement(Namespace = "")]
public string str1 { get; set; }
[XmlElement(Namespace = "")]
public string str2 { get; set; }
[XmlElement(Namespace = "")]
public string str3 { get; set; }
}

class Program
{
static void Main()
{
var ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
ns.Add("Test", "http://www.c-sharpcorner.com");
ns.Add("xsi", "http://www.google.com");
ns.Add("tag", "http://www.microsoft.com"); // or whatever
test tc = new test();
tg child = new tg(){ str1 = "A1:A#", str2 = "A2", str3 = "A3" };
tc.tg = child;
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(test));
var memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
var streamWriter = new StreamWriter(memoryStream, System.Text.Encoding.Unicode);
serializer.Serialize(streamWriter, tc, ns);
Byte[] utf8EncodedXml = memoryStream.ToArray();
var stream = new StreamReader(new MemoryStream(utf8EncodedXml));
var cs = stream.ReadToEnd();
Console.WriteLine(cs);
Console.ReadKey();
}
}

The output is then:

xmlns:Test="http://www.c-sharpcorner.com">

A1:A#
A2
A3
Ajay Patel13y ago
Thanks for reply

This is really good but have minor problem in xml

Test="http://www.c-sharpcorner.com">
A1:A#
A2
A3

all thing is good but I want to replace Test with xsi so tag will like

xsi="http://www.c-sharpcorner.com">

and what to do if child tag have such name means

A1:A#
A2
A3
Vulpes13y ago
If it's Test:tst then that's a different matter because tst is a valid XML name.

This code:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

[XmlRoot("tst", Namespace = "http://www.c-sharpcorner.com")]
public class test
{
[XmlElement(Namespace = "")]
public string str1 { get; set; }
[XmlElement(Namespace = "")]
public string str2 { get; set; }
[XmlElement(Namespace = "")]
public string str3 { get; set; }
}

class Program
{
static void Main()
{
var ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
ns.Add("Test", "http://www.c-sharpcorner.com");
test tc = new test() { str1 = "A1:A#", str2 = "A2", str3 = "A3" };
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(test));
var memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
var streamWriter = new StreamWriter(memoryStream, System.Text.Encoding.Unicode);
serializer.Serialize(streamWriter, tc, ns);
Byte[] utf8EncodedXml = memoryStream.ToArray();
var stream = new StreamReader(new MemoryStream(utf8EncodedXml));
var cs = stream.ReadToEnd();
Console.WriteLine(cs);
Console.ReadKey();
}
}

produces the following output:

A1:A#
A2
A3

The URL for the Test namepace can be anything you like.
Ajay Patel13y ago
Thanks for reply,

It's not necessary that tag name will it may also
Vulpes13y ago
Sorry but I can't think of any way that you can use Test:11 as a tag name :(

The XML serializer just won't accept it and replaces it with _x003A_ where 3A (decimal 58) is the ASCII hex code for the colon character.

I tried treating Test as a namespace but that didn't work either because "11" is not a valid XML name - it doesn't begin with a letter or an underscore. The serializer just replaces the first "1" with its hex code _x0031_ so that it is now a valid name.

I also tried changing the _x003A_ back to a colon 'manually'. However, when I then attempted to deserialize, I was informed that "Name can't begin with the '1' character".
Ajay Patel13y ago
But I have to use this colon in xml tag
Vulpes13y ago
I think you're getting this strange result because the colon is used to specify a namespace prefix in XML.

If you don't have to use it, I'd use something harmless such as the underscore instead.