Reading from XML to Dictionary using XmlSerializer?

Question

This array:

public List<Publisher> Publishers
{
    get { return _Publishers; }
    set { _Publishers = value; }
}
private List<Publisher> _Publishers;

Is used by the XmlSerializer to store the data in the XML file.

But in terms of application use, I really need a Dictionary<string, Publisher> so that I can quickly find the right Publisher object based on the name.

Now, I realise that I can't do this directly using the XMLSerializer and that is why I am using the List. Is there any neat way to achieve what I desire once the data is read in from the XML file?

I realise I can iterate the list and build a dictionary. But is there an alternative?

Answer 1

I think the approach would be to back it with a dictionary, and present the List for the serialization. Like this:

public List<Publisher> Publishers
{
    get { return _PublishersDictionary.Select(x => x.Value).ToList(); }
    set { _publishersDictionary = value.ToDictionary(x => x.Name, x => x); }
}
private Dictionary<string, Publisher> _publishersDictionary;

[XmlIgnore]
public Dictionary<string, Publisher> PublisherDictionary
{
    get { return _publishersDictionary; }
}

Answer 2

Would this help.

    public List<Publisher> Publishers
    {
        get { return _Publishers; }
        set { _Publishers = value; }
    }
    private List<Publisher> _Publishers;

    private Dictionary<string, Publisher> _PublishersDictionary;
    public Dictionary<string, Publisher> PublisherDictionary
    {
        get
        {
            if(this._PublishersDictionary == null)
            {
                this._PublishersDictionary = this.Publishers.ToDictionary(p => p.Name, p => p);
            }

            return this._PublishersDictionary;
        }
    }

Code Found from Converting linq query to dictionary I just skipped the linq query result part.

Also if you are serializing this back to the xml the seriliser should ignore this property as it does not have a setter but you could also add the [xmlIgnore] attribute above this property.