In C#, How can I serialize Queue<>? (.Net 2.0)

Question

At the XmlSerializer constructor line the below causes an InvalidOperationException which also complains about not having a default accesor implemented for the generic type.

Queue<MyData> myDataQueue = new Queue<MyData>();

// Populate the queue here


XmlSerializer mySerializer =
  new XmlSerializer(myDataQueue.GetType());    

StreamWriter myWriter = new StreamWriter("myData.xml");
mySerializer.Serialize(myWriter, myDataQueue);
myWriter.Close();

Solution 1

It would be easier (and more appropriate IMO) to serialize the data from the queue - perhaps in a flat array or List<T>. Since Queue<T> implements IEnumerable<T>, you should be able to use:

List<T> list = new List<T>(queue);

Solution 2

Not all parts of the framework are designed for XML serialization. You'll find that dictionaries also are lacking in the serialization department.

A queue is pretty trivial to implement. You can easily create your own that also implements IList so that it will be serializable.

Comments

[chakrit]

You could also use queue.ToList()

[Ambuj Mehra]

I'd like to know more about the "more appropriate" comment you made.

[Marc Gravell]

@chakrit - only with .NET 3.5, but yes.

[Roman Starkov]

This doesn't really help if you serialize a class that contains Queue<T>... Unless you are happy to XmlIgnore the Queue and ensure you have a List<T> field holding a copy of the data... Or are there better ways?