Data Contract Serializer - How to omit the outer element of a collection

Question

How do I serialize a list without the outer element using the Data Contract Serializer? I am using .Net 3.5. I have a class that contains a list, amongst

Answer 1

Use a collection data contract:

    [CollectionDataContract(Name = "MyClass", ItemName = "Parameter")]
    public class ParameterList : List
    {

    }

Here is the actual code:

public class TestSerialize
{
    [DataContract(Name = "Parameter")]
    public struct Parameter
    {
        [DataMember(Name = "ValueName")] string ValueName;
        [DataMember(Name = "Value")] int Value;
        public Parameter(string ValueName, int Value)
        {
            this.ValueName = ValueName;
            this.Value = Value;
        }
    }

    [CollectionDataContract(Name = "MyClass", ItemName = "Parameter")]
    public class ParameterList : List
    {

    }


    public string Serialize(ParameterList plist)
    {
        var serializer = new DataContractSerializer(plist.GetType());
        var output = new StringBuilder();
        var xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(output);

        serializer.WriteObject(xmlWriter, plist);
        xmlWriter.Close();

        return output.ToString();
    }


    public void Serialize_produces_2Levels_of_xml()
    {
        ParameterList p = new ParameterList
        {
            new Parameter("First", 1),
            new Parameter("Second", 2),
        };

        var xml = Serialize(p);
    }
}

if you run this you will get the following XML:

    
        1
        First
    
    
        2
        Second