Recursive Serialization in C#

Question

I need to serialize myFamily to an .xml file, I really don't know how to do it.

Enums.cs

public enum Genre {
    Male,
    Female
}

PERSON.cs

public class PERSON {
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public Genre Genre { get; set; }
    public List<PERSON> Parents { get; set; }
    public List<PERSON> Children { get; set; }

    public PERSON(string name, Genre genre) {
        this.Name = name;
        this.Genre = genre;
    }
}

Form1.cs

    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        List<PERSON> myFamily = new List<PERSON>();

        PERSON Andrew = new PERSON("Andrew", Genre.Male);
        PERSON Angela = new PERSON("Angela", Genre.Female);
        PERSON Tina = new PERSON("Tina", Genre.Female);
        PERSON Jason = new PERSON("Jason", Genre.Male);
        PERSON Amanda = new PERSON("Amanda", Genre.Female);
        PERSON Steven = new PERSON("Steven", Genre.Male);

        Andrew.Parents.Add(Tina);
        Andrew.Parents.Add(Jason);

        Angela.Parents.Add(Tina);
        Angela.Parents.Add(Jason);

        Tina.Parents.Add(Amanda);
        Tina.Parents.Add(Steven);

        Jason.Children.Add(Andrew);
        Jason.Children.Add(Angela);

        Tina.Children.Add(Andrew);
        Tina.Children.Add(Angela);

        Amanda.Children.Add(Tina);

        Steven.Children.Add(Tina);

        myFamily.Add(Andrew);
        myFamily.Add(Angela);
        myFamily.Add(Tina);
        myFamily.Add(Jason);
        myFamily.Add(Amanda);
        myFamily.Add(Steven);

        // serialize to an .xml file
    }

read this :http://stackoverflow.com/questions/178899/serializing-lists-of-classes-to-xml — Arash, Sep 06 '15 at 20:07

Reza Aghaei · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-06T21:22:50.950

To Serialize objects with circular reference you need to use DataContractSerializer. To do so

Add [DataContract(IsReference=true)] to Person class
Add [DataMember] to your properties
Instantiate your lists in constructor
Remember to using System.Runtime.Serialization;

So your class should be:

[DataContract(IsReference=true)]
public class PERSON
{
    [DataMember]
    public string Name { get; set; }
    [DataMember]
    public Genre Genre { get; set; }
    [DataMember]
    public List<PERSON> Parents { get; set; }
    [DataMember]
    public List<PERSON> Children { get; set; }

    public PERSON(string name, Genre genre)
    {
        this.Name = name;
        this.Genre = genre;
        Parents = new List<PERSON>();
        Children = new List<PERSON>();
    }
}

To Serialize:

var serializer = new DataContractSerializer(myFamily.GetType()); 
using (FileStream stream = File.Create(@"D:\Test.Xml")) 
{ 
    serializer.WriteObject(stream, myFamily); 
}

To Deserialize:

using (FileStream stream = File.OpenRead(@"D:\Test.Xml"))
{ 
    List<PERSON> data = (List<PERSON>)serializer.ReadObject(stream); 
}

Recursive Serialization in C#

1 Answers1