how to serialize type object[,] in c#

Question

I am sure a very basic question. The ultimate aim is to take a range in Excel which will generally contain text and doubles and dump the contents into an SQL database.

I want to take the range (this is entered into the c# code as an object[,] ) dump it into an XML string and save this directly into the database.

I have written a number of my own classes which I serialize easily using the DataContractSerializer . However when it comes to serializing the object[,] I am running into a brickwall and a lot of searching the net just tells me how I can serialize more complex user defined classes which I already know.

Is it possible to serialize this primitive type ? And if so how ?

Answer 1

You can't serialize multidimensional arrays using DataContractSerializer .

From msdn :

Combining collection types (having collections of collections) is allowed. Jagged arrays are treated as collections of collections. Multidimensional arrays are not supported.

Switch from object[,] to object[][] which means from multidimensional array to jagged array.