Serialize an Enum using the Enum names and not value

[Chris Dunaway]

Suppose I have the following enum:

public enum MyEnum {
EnumVal1 = 1,
EnumVal2 = 2,
EnumVal3 = 3
}

I want to serialize the enum but I want the /names/ of the enum to be
stored in the .xml file, like this:

MyEnum e;
e = MyEnum.EnumVal2 ;

// Serialization code here
I want the resulting element or attribute to be like this:

<myenum>EnumVal 2</myenum>

Can this be done? Can you control how an enum is serialized?

Thanks,

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Chris,

While you can't control how the enumeration is serialized, you can
control how your class is serialized (I'm assuming you are using XML
Serialization).

You can implement the IXmlSerializabl e interface, and handle the
serialization yourself.

You can also expose the property exposing the enum as a string, and
return the string value representing the name of the enumeration when the
property is fetched.

You might also want to look at the documentation for the
XmlEnumAttribut e class, as it will allow you to change how an enumeration is
serialized by the XmlSerializer.

Hope this helps.

--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- mv*@spam.guard. caspershouse.co m

"Chris Dunaway" <du******@gmail .com> wrote in message
news:11******** **************@ g47g2000cwa.goo glegroups.com.. .

Suppose I have the following enum:

public enum MyEnum {
EnumVal1 = 1,
EnumVal2 = 2,
EnumVal3 = 3
}

I want to serialize the enum but I want the /names/ of the enum to be
stored in the .xml file, like this:

MyEnum e;
e = MyEnum.EnumVal2 ;

// Serialization code here
I want the resulting element or attribute to be like this:

<myenum>EnumVal 2</myenum>

Can this be done? Can you control how an enum is serialized?

Thanks,