title: C# XML Serialization/Deserialization
body: <p>I am brand new to C#. I'm taking a class on it right now, and one of our class examples wont compile. Visual Studio 2010 gives me this error: There is an error in XML document (3, 2).</p>
  
  <p>How should I edit the XML file to make it work with the code?</p>
  
  <p>Thank you for your help!</p>
  
  <pre><code>public class SerializeIn
  {
      public static void Main()
      {
          // Declarations.
          Person[] p = new Person[0];
          string infile = "Persons.xml";
          StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(infile);
          XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(p.GetType());
  
          // Deserialize Person object from disc.
          p = (Person[])(xs.Deserialize(sr));
  
          // Close StreamReader object to be safe.
          sr.Close();
  
          // Write what happened.
          Console.WriteLine("Deserialized array p from output file " +
              infile + ".");
  
          // Print array.
          foreach(Person x in p)
              Console.WriteLine(x);
  
          Console.ReadLine();
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>using System;
  namespace XmlArraySerialize
  {
      /// 
      /// XmlArraySerialize Example: Serializes and deserializes 
      /// an array of Person.
      /// </p>
  
  <pre><code>public class Person
  {
      public string name;
      public string gender;
      public int age;
  
      // Noarg constructor needed for compatibility
      public Person() { }
  
      public Person(string theName, string theGender, int theAge)
      {
          name = theName;
          gender = theGender;
          age = theAge;
      }
  
      public override string ToString()
      {
          return name + " " + gender + " " + age;
  
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>}</p>
  
  <p>And the XML file...</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?&gt;
  &lt;!--Created by ToXml Example in IO--&gt;
  &lt;Persons&gt;
      &lt;Person ID="1001"&gt;
          &lt;Name&gt;Susan&lt;/Name&gt;
          &lt;Gender&gt;F&lt;/Gender&gt;
          &lt;Age&gt;21&lt;/Age&gt;
      &lt;/Person&gt;
      &lt;Person ID="1002"&gt;
          &lt;Name&gt;Michael&lt;/Name&gt;
          &lt;Gender&gt;M&lt;/Gender&gt;
          &lt;Age&gt;25&lt;/Age&gt;
      &lt;/Person&gt;
      &lt;Person ID="1003"&gt;
          &lt;Name&gt;Judy&lt;/Name&gt;
          &lt;Gender&gt;F&lt;/Gender&gt;
          &lt;Age&gt;31&lt;/Age&gt;
      &lt;/Person&gt;
      &lt;Person ID="1004"&gt;
          &lt;Name&gt;Chloe&lt;/Name&gt;
          &lt;Gender&gt;F&lt;/Gender&gt;
          &lt;Age&gt;27&lt;/Age&gt;
      &lt;/Person&gt;
      &lt;Person ID="1005"&gt;
          &lt;Name&gt;Scott&lt;/Name&gt;
          &lt;Gender&gt;M&lt;/Gender&gt;
          &lt;Age&gt;58&lt;/Age&gt;
      &lt;/Person&gt;
      &lt;Person ID="1006"&gt;
          &lt;Name&gt;William&lt;/Name&gt;
          &lt;Gender&gt;M&lt;/Gender&gt;
          &lt;Age&gt;41&lt;/Age&gt;
      &lt;/Person&gt;
      &lt;Person ID="1007"&gt;
          &lt;Name&gt;Mary&lt;/Name&gt;
          &lt;Gender&gt;F&lt;/Gender&gt;
          &lt;Age&gt;30&lt;/Age&gt;
      &lt;/Person&gt;
  &lt;/Persons&gt;
  </code></pre>