Question: I'm sending xml to another program, which expects boolean flags as "yes" or "no", rather than "true" or "false".

I have a class defined like:

```
[XmlRoot()]
public class Foo {
    public bool Bar { get; set; }
}

```

When I serialize it, my output looks like this:

```
<Foo><Bar>true</Bar></Foo>

```

But I would like it to be this:

```
<Foo><Bar>yes</Bar></Foo>

```

Can I do this at the time of serialization? I would prefer not to have to resort to this:

```
[XmlRoot()]
public class Foo {
    [XmlIgnore()]
    public bool Bar { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("Bar")]
    public string BarXml { get { return (Bar) ? "yes" : "no"; } }
}

```

Note that I also want to be able to *deserialize* this data back again.

Answer: 
@Blorgbeard:
If you have more then one of these YesNo classes in an object class,
make sure to read the entire element.

```
public void ReadXml(XmlReader reader)
{
    string element = reader.ReadOuterXml();
    int startIndex = element.IndexOf('>') + 1;
    int length = element.LastIndexOf('<') - startIndex;

    string text = (element.Substring(startIndex, length).ToLowerInvariant();

    Value = (text == "yes");
}

```

Otherwise this might cause problems.

> 
> The ReadXml method must reconstitute your object using the information that was written by the WriteXml method.
> 
> 
> When this method is called, the reader is positioned at the start of the element that wraps the information for your type. That is, just
>  before the start tag that indicates the beginning of a serialized
>  object. When this method returns, it must have read the entire element
>  from beginning to end, including all of its contents. Unlike the
>  WriteXml method, the framework does not handle the wrapper element
>  automatically. Your implementation must do so. Failing to observe
>  these positioning rules may cause code to generate unexpected runtime
>  exceptions or corrupt data.
> 
> 
>
What you're needing to do sounds more like a display issue. If your application allows, you will be better off keeping the data type as a boolean and displaying Yes/No in your user interface.