XmlArrayItemAttribute.DataType Property

 

Gets or sets the XML data type of the generated XML element.

Namespace:   System.Xml.Serialization
Assembly:  System.Xml (in System.Xml.dll)

Public Property DataType As String

Property Value

Type: System.String

An XML schema definition (XSD) data type, as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org) document "XML Schema Part 2: DataTypes".

The following table lists the XML Schema simple data types with their .NET equivalents.

For the XML Schema base64Binary and hexBinary data types, use an array of Byte objects, and apply an XmlArrayItemAttribute with the DataType property set to "base64Binary" or "hexBinary", as appropriate. For the XML Schema time and date data types, use the DateTime type and apply the XmlArrayItemAttribute with the DataType set to "date" or "time".

For every XML Schema type that is mapped to a string, apply the XmlArrayItemAttribute with its DataType property set to the XML Schema type. However, this does not change the serialization format, only the schema for the member.

System_CAPS_noteNote

The property is case-sensitive, so you must set it exactly to one of the XML Schema data types.

System_CAPS_noteNote

Passing binary data as an XML element is more efficient then passing it as an XML attribute.

For more information about XML Schema data types, see the World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org) document "XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes."

XSD data type

.NET data type

anyURI

String

base64Binary

Array of Byte objects

boolean

Boolean

byte

SByte

date

DateTime

dateTime

DateTime

decimal

Decimal

double

Double

ENTITY

String

ENTITIES

String

float

Single

gDay

String

gMonth

String

gMonthDay

String

gYear

String

gYearMonth

String

hexBinary

Array of Byte objects

ID

String

IDREF

String

IDREFS

String

int

Int32

integer

String

language

String

long

Int64

Name

String

NCName

String

negativeInteger

String

NMTOKEN

String

NMTOKENS

String

normalizedString

String

nonNegativeInteger

String

nonPositiveInteger

String

NOTATION

String

positiveInteger

String

QName

XmlQualifiedName

duration

String

string

String

short

Int16

time

DateTime

token

String

unsignedByte

Byte

unsignedInt

UInt32

unsignedLong

UInt64

unsignedShort

UInt16

The following example serializes a class named PurchaseOrder. Several instances of the XmlArrayItemAttribute class are applied to three members, and the DataType property for each instance is set to a type allowed in the array.

Imports System
Imports System.Collections
Imports System.Xml
Imports System.Xml.Serialization
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Xml.Schema
Public Class PurchaseOrder
   <XmlArrayItem(DataType:= "gMonth", _
   ElementName:="MyMonths", _
   Namespace:= "http:'www.cohowinery.com")> _
   public Months() As String 

   <XmlArrayItem(GetType(Item)), XmlArrayItem(GetType(NewItem))> _
   public Items () As Item

   <XmlArray(IsNullable:= true), _
   XmlArrayItem(GetType(String)), _
   XmlArrayItem(GetType(double)), _
   XmlArrayItem(GetType(NewItem))> _
   public Things() As Object
End Class

Public Class Item
   public ItemID As String 

   public Sub New()
   End Sub

   public Sub New (id As String)
   	ItemID = id
   End Sub
End Class

Public Class NewItem
   Inherits Item
   public Category As String 

   public Sub New()

   End Sub

   public Sub New(id As String , cat As String )
   	me.ItemID = id
   	Category = cat
   End Sub
End Class

Public Class Test
   Shared Sub Main()
      ' Read and write purchase orders.
      Dim t As Test = New Test()
      t.SerializeObject("ArrayItemExVB.xml")
      t.DeserializeObject("ArrayItemExVB.xml")
   End Sub 

   private Sub SerializeObject(filename As String)
      ' Create an instance of the XmlSerializer class
      ' specify the type of object to serialize.
      Dim serializer As XmlSerializer = _
      New XmlSerializer(GetType(PurchaseOrder))
      Dim writer As TextWriter = New StreamWriter(filename)
      ' Create a PurchaseOrder and set its properties.
      Dim po As PurchaseOrder =New PurchaseOrder()
      po.Months = New String() { "March", "May", "August"}
      po.Items= New Item(){New Item("a1"), New NewItem("b1", "book")}
      po.Things= New Object() {"String", 2003.31, New NewItem("Item100", "book")}

      ' Serialize the purchase order, and close the TextWriter.
      serializer.Serialize(writer, po)
      writer.Close()
   End Sub

   protected Sub DeserializeObject(filename As String)
      ' Create an instance of the XmlSerializer class
      ' specify the type of object to be deserialized.
      Dim serializer As XmlSerializer = _
      New XmlSerializer(GetType(PurchaseOrder))

      ' A FileStream is needed to read the XML document.
      Dim fs As FileStream = New FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open)
      ' Declare an object variable of the type to be deserialized.
      Dim po As PurchaseOrder 
      ' Use the Deserialize method to restore the object's state with
      ' data from the XML document. 
      po = CType( serializer.Deserialize(fs), PurchaseOrder)
      Dim s As String
      Dim i As Item
      Dim thing As Object
      for each s in po.Months
      	  Console.WriteLine(s)
      Next 

      for each i in po.Items
         Console.WriteLine(i.ItemID)
      Next 

      for each thing in po.Things
         Console.WriteLine(thing) 
      Next
   End Sub
End Class


Universal Windows Platform
Available since 8
.NET Framework
Available since 1.1
Portable Class Library
Supported in: portable .NET platforms
Silverlight
Available since 2.0
Windows Phone Silverlight
Available since 7.0
Windows Phone
Available since 8.1
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