// This is the test class we want to // serialize: [Serializable()] public class TestClass { private string someString; public string SomeString { get { return someString; } set { someString = value; } } private List<string> settings = new List<string>(); public List<string> Settings { get { return settings; } set { settings = value; } } // These will be ignored [NonSerialized()] private int willBeIgnored1 = 1; private int willBeIgnored2 = 1; } // Example code // This example requires: // using System.Xml.Serialization; // using System.IO; // Create a new instance of the test class TestClass TestObj = new TestClass(); // Set some dummy values TestObj.SomeString = "foo"; TestObj.Settings.Add("A"); TestObj.Settings.Add("B"); TestObj.Settings.Add("C"); #region Save the object // Create a new XmlSerializer instance with the type of the test class XmlSerializer SerializerObj = new XmlSerializer(typeof(TestClass)); // Create a new file stream to write the serialized object to a file TextWriter WriteFileStream = new StreamWriter(@"C:\test.xml"); SerializerObj.Serialize(WriteFileStream, TestObj); // Cleanup WriteFileStream.Close(); #endregion /* The test.xml file will look like this: <?xml version="1.0"?> <TestClass xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <SomeString>foo</SomeString> <Settings> <string>A</string> <string>B</string> <string>C</string> </Settings> </TestClass> */ #region Load the object // Create a new file stream for reading the XML file FileStream ReadFileStream = new FileStream(@"C:\test.xml", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read); // Load the object saved above by using the Deserialize function TestClass LoadedObj = (TestClass)SerializerObj.Deserialize(ReadFileStream); // Cleanup ReadFileStream.Close(); #endregion // Test the new loaded object: MessageBox.Show(LoadedObj.SomeString); foreach (string Setting in LoadedObj.Settings) MessageBox.Show(Setting);