How to change XML root name using XML serialization?

Question

I am trying to change the root name when doing XML serialization using C #.

It always accepts the name of the class, not the name I'm trying to set.

using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Xml.Serialization; using System.IO; namespace ConsoleApplication1 { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { MyTest test = new MyTest(); test.Test = "gog"; List<MyTest> testList = new List<MyTest>() { test }; SerializeToXML(testList); } static public void SerializeToXML(List<MyTest> list) { XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<MyTest>)); TextWriter textWriter = new StreamWriter(@"C:\New folder\test.xml"); serializer.Serialize(textWriter, list); textWriter.Close(); } } } using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Xml.Serialization; namespace ConsoleApplication1 { [XmlRootAttribute(ElementName = "WildAnimal", IsNullable = false)] public class MyTest { [XmlElement("Test")] public string Test { get; set; } } } 

Result

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ArrayOfMyTest xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <MyTest> <Test>gog</Test> </MyTest> </ArrayOfMyTest> 

He does not change it to WildAnimal. I do not know why. I got this from a textbook.

Edit @ Mark

Thanks. Now I see what you are doing, it just seems strange that you have to wrap around it. I have one more question, what happens if I want to make this format

 <root> <element> <name></name> </element> <anotherElement> <product></product> </anotherElement> </root> 

like nested elements. Should I create a new class for the second part and stick to this in the wrapper class?

Answer 1

In your example, MyTest is not the root; are you trying to rename an array? I would write a wrapper:

 [XmlRoot("NameOfRootElement")] public class MyWrapper { private List<MyTest> items = new List<MyTest>(); [XmlElement("NameOfChildElement")] public List<MyTest> Items { get { return items; } } } static void Main() { MyTest test = new MyTest(); test.Test = "gog"; MyWrapper wrapper = new MyWrapper { Items = { test } }; SerializeToXML(wrapper); } static public void SerializeToXML(MyWrapper list) { XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyWrapper)); using (TextWriter textWriter = new StreamWriter(@"test.xml")) { serializer.Serialize(textWriter, list); textWriter.Close(); } }