XML Serializer: why deserialization doesn't work in my case?

Question

Hi, guys. I use XMLSerializer to keep and restore program options. Here is the code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace XMLAsk
{
    class Test
    {
        public static string ConfigFileName = "C:\\Work\\TMP\\Config.xml";

        public static void Main()
        {

            MyOptions myOptions = new MyOptions();
            myOptions.Title = "Hello, world!";
            myOptions.Rating = 15;

            SerializeToXML(myOptions);

            MyOptions myOptions2 = new MyOptions();
            DeserializeFromXML(myOptions2);

            MessageBox.Show(myOptions2.Title);


        }

        public static void SerializeToXML(MyOptions myOptions)
        {

            XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyOptions));
            TextWriter textWriter = new StreamWriter(ConfigFileName);
            serializer.Serialize(textWriter, myOptions);
            textWriter.Close();

        }

        public static void DeserializeFromXML(MyOptions myOptions2)
        {

            XmlSerializer deserializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyOptions));
            TextReader textReader = new StreamReader(ConfigFileName);
            myOptions2 = (MyOptions)deserializer.Deserialize(textReader);
            textReader.Close();

        }
    }

    public class MyOptions
    {


        private string title;
        private int rating;

        public string Title
        {
            get { return title;  }
            set { title = value; }
        }

        public int Rating
        {
            get { return rating; }
            set { rating = value;}
        }

   }

}

Serialization does work. I get the following xml-file (Config.xml):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 
- <MyOptions xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"&gt;
  <Title>Hello, world!</Title> 
  <Rating>15</Rating> 
  </MyOptions>

But deserialization seems doesn't work. For instance, when I display one of options with MessageBox.Show(myOptions2.Title); (see code above), then I get an empty string.

Why? What's wrong with my code?

Answer 1

myOptions2 = (MyOptions)deserializer.Deserialize(textReader);

You need to return that object. Or use a ref parameter.

Answer 2

Closed. Thanks leppie for the insight!