using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Xml.Serialization;

using System.Xml;

using System.Xml.Linq;

using System.IO;

​

    public class ListOfStuff

    {

        [XmlElement]

        public PropertyList PropertyList { get; set; }

    }

​

    public class PropertyList

    {

        [XmlElement]

        public List<Datum> Datum { get; set; }

    }

​

    public class Datum

    {

        [XmlAttribute]

        public string qualifier { get; set; }

​

        [XmlText]

        public string Value { get; set; }

    }

    public class Program

    {

        static string GetXml()

        {

            var xml = @"<ListOfStuff>

    <PropertyList>

         <Datum qualifier=""areaType"">square</Datum>

         <Datum qualifier=""color"">red</Datum>

    </PropertyList>

</ListOfStuff>";

            return xml;

        }

        public static void Main()

        {

            var test = GetXml().LoadFromXML<ListOfStuff>();

            var xml2 = test.GetXml(true);

​

            Console.WriteLine("Re-serialized XML: ");

            Console.WriteLine(xml2);

            if (!XNode.DeepEquals(XElement.Parse(xml2), XElement.Parse(GetXml())))

            {

                Console.WriteLine("Failed");

                throw new InvalidOperationException("!XNode.DeepEquals(XElement.Parse(xml2), XElement.Parse(GetXml()))");

            }

            else

            {

                Console.WriteLine("Original and re-serialized XML are equivalent.");

            }       

        }

    }

​

    public static class XmlSerializationHelper

    {

        public static T LoadFromXML<T>(this string xmlString)

        {

            using (StringReader reader = new StringReader(xmlString))

            {

                return (T)new XmlSerializer(typeof(T)).Deserialize(reader);

            }

        }

​

        public static string GetXml<T>(this T obj, bool omitStandardNamespaces = false)

        {

            XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = null;

            if (omitStandardNamespaces)

            {

                ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();

                ns.Add("", ""); // Disable the xmlns:xsi and xmlns:xsd lines.

            }           

            using (var textWriter = new StringWriter())

            {

                var settings = new XmlWriterSettings() { Indent = true, IndentChars = "    " }; // For cosmetic purposes.

                using (var xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(textWriter, settings))

                    new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType()).Serialize(xmlWriter, obj, ns);

                return textWriter.ToString();

            }

        }

    }

​