C# .Net : XML Serialization of DataSet

XML Serialization require XmlSerializer class which is derived from System.Xml.Serialization.

Example to demonstrate XML Serialization of DataSet :-

using System.IO;

namespace DemoApplication
{
    class DatasetSerialization
    {
        public static void Main(String[] args)
        {
            // XmlSerializer class instance of type DataSet is created
            XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(DataSet));

            //creation of DataSet
            DataSet employeeDS = new DataSet("Employee");

            //creation of DataTable
            DataTable empdetailsDT = new DataTable("EmployeeDetails");

            //Columns of DataTable
            empdetailsDT.Columns.Add("EmployeeName");
            empdetailsDT.Columns.Add("EmployeeDepartment");

            //Rowsc of Datatable
            empdetailsDT.Rows.Add("Deepak Rana", "Mechanical");
            empdetailsDT.Rows.Add("Suraj Rana", "HM");

            //Adding DataTable to DataSet
            employeeDS.Tables.Add(empdetailsDT);

            //StreamWriter object assigned to TextWriter instance
            TextWriter textWriter = new StreamWriter(@"D:\BasicDataSetSerialization.xml");

            //Serialize the Datset using serialize method
            serializer.Serialize(textWriter, employeeDS);

            textWriter.Close();
        }
    }
}

Steps used in above program :-

• An object of XmlSerializer class is created of type "DataSet",now this object will be used to serialize.

• DataSet is defined.

• DataTable with rows and columns is defined which is then added to Dataset. 

• An instance of TextWriter is created which is assigned to StreamWriter object for saving file in some physical location. TextWriter is an abstract class.

• “Serialize” method of xmlSerializer class is called which performs xml serialization of defined dataset object of type.

• Finally TextWriter is closed.

When above program is run an xml file named "BasicDataSetSerialization.xml" is created in mentioned physical location. The contents of this file is as follows :-