Convert an object to an XML string

Here are conversion method for both ways.this = instance of your class

public string ToXML()    {        using(var stringwriter = new System.IO.StringWriter())        {             var serializer = new XmlSerializer(this.GetType());            serializer.Serialize(stringwriter, this);            return stringwriter.ToString();        }    } public static YourClass LoadFromXMLString(string xmlText)    {        using(var stringReader = new System.IO.StringReader(xmlText))        {            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(YourClass ));            return serializer.Deserialize(stringReader) as YourClass ;        }    }

I realize this is a very old post, but after looking at L.B's response I thought about how I could improve upon the accepted answer and make it generic for my own application. Here's what I came up with:

public static string Serialize<T>(T dataToSerialize){    try    {        var stringwriter = new System.IO.StringWriter();        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));        serializer.Serialize(stringwriter, dataToSerialize);        return stringwriter.ToString();    }    catch    {        throw;    }}public static T Deserialize<T>(string xmlText){    try    {        var stringReader = new System.IO.StringReader(xmlText);        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));        return (T)serializer.Deserialize(stringReader);    }    catch    {        throw;    }}

These methods can now be placed in a static helper class, which means no code duplication to every class that needs to be serialized.

    public static string Serialize(object dataToSerialize)    {        if(dataToSerialize==null) return null;        using (StringWriter stringwriter = new System.IO.StringWriter())        {            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(dataToSerialize.GetType());            serializer.Serialize(stringwriter, dataToSerialize);            return stringwriter.ToString();        }    }    public static T Deserialize<T>(string xmlText)    {        if(String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(xmlText)) return default(T);        using (StringReader stringReader = new System.IO.StringReader(xmlText))        {            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));            return (T)serializer.Deserialize(stringReader);        }    }