Easy way to convert a Dictionary to xml and vice versa

Question

Wondering if there is a fast way, maybe with linq?, to convert a Dictionary into a XML document. And a way to convert the xml back to a di

Answer 1

I was looking for the same thing with a little difference(string, object) and I solved like this:

public static XElement ToXML(this Dictionary dic, string firstNode)
{
    IList xElements = new List();

    foreach (var item in dic)
        xElements.Add(new XElement(item.Key, GetXElement(item.Value)));

    XElement root = new XElement(firstNode, xElements.ToArray());

    return root;
}

private static object GetXElement(object item)
{
    if (item != null && item.GetType() == typeof(Dictionary))
    {
        IList xElements = new List();
        foreach (var item2 in item as Dictionary)
            xElements.Add(new XElement(item2.Key, GetXElement(item2.Value)));

        return xElements.ToArray();
    }

    return item;
}

...for a dictionary(nested):

var key2 = new Dictionary
                {
                    {"key3", "value"},
                    {"key4", "value"},
                };

var key = new Dictionary
                {
                    {"key", "value"}
                    {"key2", key1},
                };

...passing "root" as firstNode i get:

    value
    
        value
        value
    

Edited!