Develop Reference

Circular Reference in XmlSerializer c#

I'm making an application where I would connect signals with eachother. This creates a circular reference.
The examples I've seen show solutions for a Parent-Child structure. In my application I connect 2 objects from the same class with eachother, so I won't be able to simply ignore one of the references.
I've made a quick example of what my app is doing:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Info i = new Info();
Employee bs = new Employee("asfdljfoiej", i);
Employee ss = new Employee("asfdljfj", i);
bs.conEm = ss;
ss.conEm = bs;
XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Employee));
const string path = #"C:\Users\Joris.Bosma.KG\source\repos\TestProject\TestProject\bin\Debug\Serializing.xml";
TextWriter txtWriter = new StreamWriter(path);
xs.Serialize(txtWriter, bs);
txtWriter.Close();
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Program p = new Program();
p.Deserialize("Serializing.xml");
}
public void Deserialize(string filename)
{
XmlSerializer xs2 = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Employee));
Employee em;
using (Stream reader = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open))
em = (Employee)xs2.Deserialize(reader);
Console.Write(em.name);
}
}
public class Employee
{
public int Id = 1;
public String name = "John Smith";
public string subject = "Physics";
public string random;
public List<Employee> Employees;
public Employee conEm;
public Info inf;
public Employee()
{
}
public Employee(String s, Info i)
{
random = s;
inf = i;
}
}
public class Info : Employee
{
public string add = "Street";
}
The problem lays in
bs.conEm = ss
ss.conEm = bs
Thanks for helping in advance!

If structure of employees is not hierarchial (loops are possible), I would recommend to exclude properties 'conEm' and 'Employees' from serialization and store data in structure like this:
public class Relationship {
public int ParentId { get; set; }
public int ChildId { get; set; }
}
public class DataStore {
// flat list of employees
public List<Employee> Employees { get; set; }
// list of all relationship between Employees
public List<Relationship> Relationships { get; set; }
}
This structure needs to be populated before serialization.
After deserialization, structure can easily be restored:
var index = data.Employees.ToLookup(e => e.Id);
data.Relationships.Iter(r => {
var parent = index[r.ParentId].FirstOrDefault();
var child = index[r.ChildId].FirstOrDefault();
if (parent != nuu && child != null) {
parent.Employees.Add(child);
child.conEm = parent;
}
});

Deserialising XML with different element name in c#

XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Images>
<I0>
<Path>123.com</Path>
<I0>
<I1>
<Path>123.com</Path>
<I1>
<I2>
<Path>123.com</Path>
<I2>
</Images>
Can serializer.Deserialize() be used to get tags with different names into a collection?
currently, in my object I have:
C#:
public class rootObject
{
[XmlElement(ElementName = "I0")]
public I0 I0 { get; set; }
[XmlElement(ElementName = "I1")]
public I1 I1 { get; set; }
[XmlElement(ElementName = "I2")]
public I2 I2 { get; set; }
}
But I would like to have (Because Images can have more or fewer elements):
public class rootObject
{
public List<I> Is { get; set; }
}

You can do what you are suggesting you just merely need to pass in the type argument in your class doing the generic. The key point to remember when you do a deserialization routine is that the routine needs to know the sub reference. So if I was to say string.Deserialize it would bomb. It would need to know a reference string.Deserialize> where Sub could be the class object that may change.
Say I have a base class and I want 'T' to be a type I can change for extensible abilities later.
[Serializable]
public class Test<T> where T : class
{
public Test() { }
public int TestId { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public List<T> Shipments { get; set; }
}
I want to test this with two classes I just make up that have different properties slightly
[Serializable]
public class Sub1
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Desc { get; set; }
}
[Serializable]
public class Sub2
{
public int IdWhatever { get; set; }
public string DescWhatever { get; set; }
}
Now let's do a main program and test serialization.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var serializeTest = new Test<Sub1> { TestId = 1, Name = "Test", Shipments = new List<Sub1> { new Sub1 { Id = 1, Desc = "Test" }, new Sub1 { Id = 2, Desc = "Test2" } } };
var serializeTest2 = new Test<Sub2> { TestId = 1, Name = "Test", Shipments = new List<Sub2> { new Sub2 { IdWhatever = 1, DescWhatever = "Test" }, new Sub2 { IdWhatever = 2, DescWhatever = "Test2" } } };
var serialized = serializeTest.SerializeToXml();
var serialized2 = serializeTest2.SerializeToXml();
var deserialized = serialized.DeserializeXml<Test<Sub1>>();
var deserialized2 = serialized2.DeserializeXml<Test<Sub2>>();
Console.WriteLine(serialized);
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine(serialized2);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
And my Serialize and DeSerialize extension methods:
public static string SerializeToXml<T>(this T valueToSerialize, string namespaceUsed = null)
{
var ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces(new XmlQualifiedName[] { new XmlQualifiedName(string.Empty, (namespaceUsed != null) ? namespaceUsed : string.Empty) });
using (var sw = new StringWriter())
{
using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sw, new XmlWriterSettings { OmitXmlDeclaration = true }))
{
dynamic xmler = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
xmler.Serialize(writer, valueToSerialize, ns);
}
return sw.ToString();
}
}
public static T DeserializeXml<T>(this string xmlToDeserialize)
{
dynamic serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
using (TextReader reader = new StringReader(xmlToDeserialize))
{
return (T)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
}

You don't need to specify the XmlElement name when the properties match the XML. A few solutions, some kinda hacky :).
HACKY: use regex string replace to replace <I#> and </I#> to
just <I> and </I>
SOMEWHAT HACKY: This might work for you:
How to deserialize an XML array containing multiple types of elements in C#,
but you'd have to add an attribute for i0, i1 ... i100, etc.
BEST: Is that your entire XML? I'd honestly just use LINQToXml and
do a Descendants("Path") and get an array of strings back with 1 line of code. Serialization is not really the best solution for this.

Converting objects with string[] properties to CSV or Excel

Is there any library out there that can serialize objects with array properties to .csv?
Let's say I have this model:
public class Product
{
public string ProductName { get; set; }
public int InStock { get; set; }
public double Price { get; set; }
...
public string[] AvailableVariants { get; set; }
}
Would something like that be possible to do?
Edit: I need to present some data in a csv/excel format. The thing is, I'm not sure if there is a simple way of achieving what I want with CSV serialization libraries or if I should rather focus on writing an Excel native file.
An example of result I'm looking for:
Product Name In Stock Price Variants
ABC 241 200 Normal
CAB 300 300 Normal
Red
Blue
CBA 125 100 Normal
White
Awesome
Red
ACB 606 75 Normal
Small
Large
X-Large
What would be the most efficient way to do this?

I'm not aware of any libraries that will do this, here's a console example of how I'd approach writing/reading from a CSV:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
namespace TestingProduct
{
class TestingProduct
{
public class Product
{
public string ProductName { get; set; }
public int InStock { get; set; }
public double Price { get; set; }
public string[] AvailableVariants { get; set; }
public override string ToString() => $"{ProductName},{InStock},{Price}{(AvailableVariants?.Length > 0 ? "," + string.Join(",", AvailableVariants) : "")}";
public static Product Parse(string csvRow)
{
var fields = csvRow.Split(',');
return new Product
{
ProductName = fields[0],
InStock = Convert.ToInt32(fields[1]),
Price= Convert.ToDouble(fields[2]),
AvailableVariants = fields.Skip(3).ToArray()
};
}
}
static void Main()
{
var prod1 = new Product
{
ProductName = "test1",
InStock= 2,
Price = 3,
AvailableVariants = new string[]{ "variant1", "variant2" }
};
var filepath = #"C:\temp\test.csv";
File.WriteAllText(filepath, prod1.ToString());
var parsedRow = File.ReadAllText(filepath);
var parsedProduct = Product.Parse(parsedRow);
Console.WriteLine(parsedProduct);
var noVariants = new Product
{
ProductName = "noVariants",
InStock = 10,
Price = 10
};
var prod3 = new Product
{
ProductName = "test2",
InStock= 5,
Price = 5,
AvailableVariants = new string[] { "variant3", "variant4" }
};
var filepath2 = #"C:\temp\test2.csv";
var productList = new List<Product> { parsedProduct, prod3, noVariants };
File.WriteAllText(filepath2, string.Join("\r\n", productList.Select(x => x.ToString())));
var csvRows = File.ReadAllText(filepath2);
var newProductList = new List<Product>();
foreach (var csvRow in csvRows.Split(new string[] { "\r\n" }, StringSplitOptions.None))
{
newProductList.Add(Product.Parse(csvRow));
}
newProductList.ForEach(Console.WriteLine);
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
This code will work with a class that has a single object array property. Do you need something that can handle an object with multiple array properties?

I have written some kind of library to write csv files, have a look:
public static class CsvSerializer
{
public static bool Serialize<T>(string path, IList<T> data, string delimiter = ";")
{
var csvBuilder = new StringBuilder();
var dataType = typeof(T);
var properties = dataType.GetProperties()
.Where(prop => prop.GetCustomAttribute(typeof(CsvSerialize)) == null);
//write header
foreach (var property in properties)
{
csvBuilder.Append(property.Name);
if (property != properties.Last())
{
csvBuilder.Append(delimiter);
}
}
csvBuilder.Append("\n");
//data
foreach (var dataElement in data)
{
foreach (var property in properties)
{
csvBuilder.Append(property.GetValue(dataElement));
if (property != properties.Last())
{
csvBuilder.Append(delimiter);
}
}
csvBuilder.Append("\n");
}
File.WriteAllText(path, csvBuilder.ToString());
return true;
}
}
public class CsvSerialize : Attribute
{
}
Lets pretend you want to serialize following class:
public class MyDataClass
{
[CsvSerialize]
public string Item1 {get; set;}
[CsvSerialize]
public string Item2 {get; set;}
}
Then just do:
public void SerializeData(IList<MyDataClass> data)
{
CsvSerializer.Serialize("C:\\test.csv", data);
}
It takes a IList of your class and writes a csv.
It cant serialize arrays but that would be easy to implement.

How to do Cascading Include in LiteDB

here is example on how to store cross-referenced entities in LiteDB. LiteDB stores the cross-referenced entities perfectly fine, but problem comes when I am trying to find/load entities back. My goal is NOT ONLY the requested entity but also referenced ones. There is quick tutorial section "DbRef for cross references" on LiteDB webpage how one can realize it. LiteDB has "Include" option (which is called before "FindAll") which says which referenced entities must be loaded as well. I am trying to achieve it in this code example but with no results, i.e, the code raises Exception("D_Ref") meaning "D_Ref" reference is not loaded:
namespace _01_simple {
using System;
using LiteDB;
public class A {
public int Id { set; get; }
public string Name { set; get; }
public B B_Ref { set; get; }
}
public class B {
public int Id { set; get; }
public string Name { set; get; }
public C C_Ref { set; get; }
}
public class C {
public int Id { set; get; }
public string Name { set; get; }
public D D_Ref { set; get; }
}
public class D {
public int Id { set; get; }
public string Name { set; get; }
}
class Program {
static void Main(string[] args) {
test_01();
}
static string NameInDb<T>() {
var name = typeof(T).Name + "s";
return name;
}
static void test_01() {
if (System.IO.File.Exists(#"MyData.db"))
System.IO.File.Delete(#"MyData.db");
using (var db = new LiteDatabase(#"MyData.db")) {
var As = db.GetCollection<A>(NameInDb<A>());
var Bs = db.GetCollection<B>(NameInDb<B>());
var Cs = db.GetCollection<C>(NameInDb<C>());
var Ds = db.GetCollection<D>(NameInDb<D>());
LiteDB.BsonMapper.Global.Entity<A>().DbRef(x => x.B_Ref, NameInDb<B>());
LiteDB.BsonMapper.Global.Entity<B>().DbRef(x => x.C_Ref, NameInDb<C>());
LiteDB.BsonMapper.Global.Entity<C>().DbRef(x => x.D_Ref, NameInDb<D>());
var d = new D { Name = "I am D." };
var c = new C { Name = "I am C.", D_Ref = d };
var b = new B { Name = "I am B.", C_Ref = c };
var a = new A { Name = "I am A.", B_Ref = b };
Ds.Insert(d);
Cs.Insert(c);
Bs.Insert(b);
As.Insert(a);
}
using (var db = new LiteDatabase(#"MyData.db")) {
var As = db.GetCollection<A>(NameInDb<A>());
var all_a = As
.Include(x => x.B_Ref)
.FindAll();
foreach (var a in all_a) {
if (a.B_Ref == null)
throw new Exception("B_Ref");
if (a.B_Ref.C_Ref == null)
throw new Exception("C_Ref");
if (a.B_Ref.C_Ref.D_Ref == null)
throw new Exception("D_Ref");
}
}
}
}}

after small research I've resolved the issue simply by adding extra "Include" parameterize by "x => x.B_Ref.C_Ref" lambda where x.B_Ref.C_Ref is a path in hierarchy of references:
var all_a = As
.Include(x => x.B_Ref)
.Include(x => x.B_Ref.C_Ref)
.FindAll();
Here is complete example
namespace _01_simple {
using System;
using LiteDB;
public class A {
public int Id { set; get; }
public string Name { set; get; }
public B B_Ref { set; get; }
}
public class B {
public int Id { set; get; }
public string Name { set; get; }
public C C_Ref { set; get; }
}
public class C {
public int Id { set; get; }
public string Name { set; get; }
public D D_Ref { set; get; }
}
public class D {
public int Id { set; get; }
public string Name { set; get; }
}
class Program {
static void Main(string[] args) {
test_01();
}
static string NameInDb<T>() {
var name = typeof(T).Name + "s";
return name;
}
static void test_01() {
if (System.IO.File.Exists(#"MyData.db"))
System.IO.File.Delete(#"MyData.db");
using (var db = new LiteDatabase(#"MyData.db")) {
var As = db.GetCollection<A>(NameInDb<A>());
var Bs = db.GetCollection<B>(NameInDb<B>());
var Cs = db.GetCollection<C>(NameInDb<C>());
var Ds = db.GetCollection<D>(NameInDb<D>());
LiteDB.BsonMapper.Global.Entity<A>().DbRef(x => x.B_Ref, NameInDb<B>());
LiteDB.BsonMapper.Global.Entity<B>().DbRef(x => x.C_Ref, NameInDb<C>());
LiteDB.BsonMapper.Global.Entity<C>().DbRef(x => x.D_Ref, NameInDb<D>());
var d = new D { Name = "I am D." };
var c = new C { Name = "I am C.", D_Ref = d };
var b = new B { Name = "I am B.", C_Ref = c };
var a = new A { Name = "I am A.", B_Ref = b };
Ds.Insert(d);
Cs.Insert(c);
Bs.Insert(b);
As.Insert(a);
}
using (var db = new LiteDatabase(#"MyData.db")) {
var As = db.GetCollection<A>(NameInDb<A>());
var all_a = As
.Include(x => x.B_Ref)
.Include(x => x.B_Ref.C_Ref)
.Include(x => x.B_Ref.C_Ref.D_Ref)
.FindAll();
foreach (var a in all_a) {
if (a.B_Ref == null)
throw new Exception("B_Ref");
if (a.B_Ref.C_Ref == null)
throw new Exception("C_Ref");
if (a.B_Ref.C_Ref.D_Ref == null)
throw new Exception("D_Ref");
}
}
}
}}
I hope it saves someone's time.
Update: LiteDB author says there is no support for Cascading Include. But it is planned in the next version (see issue). Consider, once, let say, B_Ref is a Lite of B, then there is no mechanism to force deeper Include.

compare properties in classes of list in class

What I've got are two classes which each contain Lists of Classes with propperties of different types. The first list is an updated version of the second and i need to find all differences (deleted/added classes in lists and updated classes).
public class ClassOfKb
{
public List<Data> KbData {get;set;}
public List<Info> KbInfo {get;set;}
}
class Data
{
public Guid ID {get;set}
public byte[] file {get;set}
public string name {get;set}
}
class Info
{
public Guid ID {get;set}
public string text {get;set}
public DateTime date {get;set}
}
ClassOfKb KbA = new ClassOfKb();
ClassOfKb KbB = new ClassOfKb();
first KbA and KbB will be filled from the same DataSet, then i delete, add and modify some of KbA Child-Classes.
now i need to compare KbA with KbB to find out where the differences are. i need the ID of deleted or added classes in KbA and the exact changes of modified Child-Classes properties. How would i do this? Preffered with Linq.

I suggest that create two comparers one for Data and one for Info
class DataComparer : IEqualityComparer<Data>
{
public bool Equals(Data x, Data y)
{
//logic to compare x to y and return true when they are equal
}
public int GetHashCode(Data d)
{
//logic to return a hash code
}
}
class InfoComparer : IEqualityComparer<Info>
{
public bool Equals(Info x, Info y)
{
//logic to compare x to y and return true when they are equal
}
public int GetHashCode(Info i)
{
//logic to return a hash code
}
}
The you can use Intersect and Except LINQ methods
IEnumerable<Data> DataInAandNotInB = KbA.KbData.Except(KbB.KbData,new DataComparer());
IEnumerable<Info> InfoInAandInB = KbA.KbInfo.Intersect(KbB.KbInfo,new InfoComparer ());

For simplicity, I skipped comparison of the byte array and DateTime data membes, only left the IDs and the string data members, but to add them you will need some small modification.
The test is very-very basic, but shows all three of the changes options:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ClassOfKb KbA = new ClassOfKb();
ClassOfKb KbB = new ClassOfKb();
// Test data --------
Data data1 = new Data() { ID = Guid.NewGuid(), name = "111" };
Data data2 = new Data() { ID = Guid.NewGuid(), name = "222" };
Data data2_changed = new Data() { ID = data2.ID, name = "222_changed" };
Data data3 = new Data() { ID = Guid.NewGuid(), name = "333" };
Info info1 = new Info() { ID = Guid.NewGuid(), text = "aaa" };
Info info2 = new Info() { ID = Guid.NewGuid(), text = "bbb" };
Info info2_changed = new Info() { ID = info2.ID, text = "bbb_changed" };
Info info3 = new Info() { ID = Guid.NewGuid(), text = "ccc" };
KbA.KbData.Add(data1);
KbA.KbData.Add(data2);
KbA.KbInfo.Add(info1);
KbA.KbInfo.Add(info2);
KbB.KbData.Add(data2_changed);
KbB.KbData.Add(data3);
KbB.KbInfo.Add(info2_changed);
KbB.KbInfo.Add(info3);
// end of test data ---------
// here is the solution:
var indexes = Enumerable.Range(0, KbA.KbData.Count);
var deleted = from i in indexes
where !KbB.KbData.Select((n) => n.ID).Contains(KbA.KbData[i].ID)
select new
{
Name = KbA.KbData[i].name,
KbDataID = KbA.KbData[i].ID,
KbInfoID = KbA.KbInfo[i].ID
};
Console.WriteLine("deleted:");
foreach (var val in deleted)
{
Console.WriteLine(val.Name);
}
var added = from i in indexes
where !KbA.KbData.Select((n) => n.ID).Contains(KbB.KbData[i].ID)
select new
{
Name = KbB.KbData[i].name,
KbDataID = KbB.KbData[i].ID,
KbInfoID = KbB.KbInfo[i].ID
};
Console.WriteLine("added:");
foreach (var val in added)
{
Console.WriteLine(val.Name);
}
var changed = from i in indexes
from j in indexes
where KbB.KbData[i].ID == KbA.KbData[j].ID &&
(//KbB.KbData[i].file != KbA.KbData[j].file ||
KbB.KbData[i].name != KbA.KbData[j].name ||
//KbB.KbInfo[i].date != KbA.KbInfo[j].date ||
KbB.KbInfo[i].text != KbA.KbInfo[j].text
)
select new
{
Name = KbA.KbData[j].name,
KbDataID = KbA.KbData[j].ID,
KbInfoID = KbA.KbInfo[j].ID
};
Console.WriteLine("changed:");
foreach (var val in changed)
{
Console.WriteLine(val.Name);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
public class ClassOfKb
{
public List<Data> KbData = new List<Data>();
public List<Info> KbInfo = new List<Info>();
}
public class Data
{
public Guid ID { get; set; }
public byte[] file { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
}
public class Info
{
public Guid ID { get; set; }
public string text { get; set; }
public DateTime date { get; set; }
}