Storing User Settings in C# Application

Question

After spending countless hours changing my code and removing everything that wont serialize and changing them to strings and writing functions to convert from Font/Color to strings and back again i've got fed up and decided to make my own basic serializer..

private void saveSettings()
{
    PropertyInfo[] properties = typeof(settingsObj).GetProperties();
    foreach (settingsObj s in settings)
    {
        foreach (PropertyInfo property in properties)
        {
            MessageBox.Show(s.[property.Name]);
        }
    }
}

How do i refer to a variable using a string, in PHP i'd do:

$varIWantToRead = "foobar";
$varName = "varIWantToRead";
print $$varName;

Answer 1

This can easily be done in the exe.config file. Here is a write up from Microsoft:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730869.aspx

You could also create your own class or struct and serialize them into XML:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/815813

Edit to answer your new question: Im not quite sure I know what your talking about but here we go:

In PHP: 
$varIWantToRead = "foobar";
$varName = "varIWantToRead";
print $$varName;


in c#: 
string varIWantToRead = "foobar"; 
string varName = varIWantToRead; 
Console.WriteLine(varName); // Outputs foobar

Answer 2

You can use the default behaviour of winforms setting, Application Settings. Take a look at what microsoft says in brief and also goes into more details in another link

XML is a dynamic way of keeping data, there are lots of samples online like this tutorial and this microsoft link

Answer 3

This is exactly what i was looking for.

Thanks Guys.

Serializing Lists of Classes to XML