This type is used to convert XML elements into other, non-XML types, such as CLR objects. In particular, it is used to convert XSD types into CLR types, for easy transformation of schema-valid XML documents into .NET objects and back again. It is also used within a variety of other areas, including ADO.NET (for automatic conversion of XML documents into relational tables and rows).

For the most part, .NET programmers use this type indirectly as part of the .NET Web Services stack or else directly in order to convert between XML documents and CLR objects (as part of a home-grown XML-to-RDBMS system, for example).

Note that although a constructor is provided, all methods of any interest are declared static and therefore require no instance to use. In essence, this type is a collection of C-style functions.

public class XmlConvert {
// Public Constructors
   public XmlConvert( );
// Public Static Methods
   public static string DecodeName(string name);
   public static string EncodeLocalName(string name);
   public static string EncodeName(string name);
   public static string EncodeNmToken(string name);
   public static bool ToBoolean(string s);
   public static byte ToByte(string s);
   public static char ToChar(string s);
   public static DateTime ToDateTime(string s);
   public static DateTime ToDateTime(string s, string format);
   public static DateTime ToDateTime(string s, string[ ] formats);
   public static decimal ToDecimal(string s);
   public static double ToDouble(string s);
   public static Guid ToGuid(string s);
   public static short ToInt16(string s);
   public static int ToInt32(string s);
   public static long ToInt64(string s);
   public static sbyte ToSByte(string s);
   public static float ToSingle(string s);
   public static string ToString(bool value);
   public static string ToString(byte value);
   public static string ToString(char value);
   public static string ToString(DateTime value);
   public static string ToString(DateTime value, string format);
   public static string ToString(decimal value);
   public static string ToString(double value);
   public static string ToString(Guid value);
   public static string ToString(short value);
   public static string ToString(int value);
   public static string ToString(long value);
   public static string ToString(sbyte value);
   public static string ToString(float value);
   public static string ToString(TimeSpan value);
   public static string ToString(ushort value);
   public static string ToString(uint value);
   public static string ToString(ulong value);
   public static TimeSpan ToTimeSpan(string s);
   public static ushort ToUInt16(string s);
   public static uint ToUInt32(string s);
   public static ulong ToUInt64(string s);
   public static string VerifyName(string name);
   public static string VerifyNCName(string name);
}