Change the order of elements when serializing XML

Question

I need to serialize an Object to XML and back. The XML is fix and I can\'t change it. I fail to generate this structure after bookingList.

How can I \"

Answer 1

Try decorating the properties of the bookingListclass with the XmlElementAttribute, in order to control how the objects of that class are going to be serialized to XML.

Here's an example:

public class bookingList
{
    [XmlElement(Order = 1)]
    public string error { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(Order = 2)]
    public int counter { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "booking", Order = 3)]
    public List<booking> bookings = new List<booking>();
}

public class booking
{
    public int id { get; set; }
}

In my test I obtained this output:

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
<bookingList>
    <error>sample</error>
    <counter>0</counter>
    <booking>
        <id>1</id> 
    </booking>
    <booking>
        <id>2</id> 
    </booking>
    <booking>
        <id>3</id> 
    </booking> 
</bookingList>

Related resources:

• Controlling XML Serialization Using Attributes

Answer 2

I was facing with this problem and i solved it... Well it is very interesting, and this is a bug in .net maybe.

the problem is here: public List<booking> booking= new List<booking>();

You should use: public List<booking> booking { get; set; }

And you will get the defined order .... but why? who knows... :)