Required attributes in XML serialization

Question

For example I have class to serialize

[Serializable]
class Person
{
    [XmlAttribute("name")]
    string Name {get;set;}
}

I need to make Name attribute required. How to do this in .NET?

Answer 1

First of all, [Serializable] is not used by the XML Serializer.

Second, there is no way to make it required.

Answer 2

I believe you are confusing XML with an XSD. If you want your property to always have a value, initialize this property in the constructor, and throw an exception if anyone tries to set it to empty or null.

class Person
{

  private string _Name = "Not Initialized";
  [XmlAttribute("name")]
  string Name {
    get { return _Name;}
    set {
        if(value == null || value==string.Empty) throw new ArgumentException(...);

        _Name = value;
    }
   }
}