Is it possible to store a List or a 2D array in a DB?

Question

SQL

MS SQL database. I am using Entity Framework. How can I save an array or a sheet there? Does SQL have some type? Or can it be serialized? Or do you need an additional table? Give examples in code, please.

Answer 1

If you just put an array or other object in a field, then serialize:

table.arrayField = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new string[] { "123", "qwe", "asd" });

//deserialize
var array = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<string[]>(table.arrayField);

Answer 2

Maybe. I didn’t specifically use the Entity Framework, but in other ORMs and relational databases in general, this is implemented by relationships : the list items are stored as rows of the same or another table that have a foreign key field on the row that stores the data of the original entity.

Answer 3

Anything can be serialized

using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

private class Utf8StringWriter : StringWriter
    {
        public override Encoding Encoding { get { return Encoding.UTF8; } }
    }

var xs = new XmlSerializer(ObjectName.GetType());
                            var xml = new Utf8StringWriter();
                            xs.Serialize(xml, ObjectName);//xml.ToString() - тут строка содержимого в xml формате, оч удобно

And back

private static T Deserialize<T>(string xml)
    {
        var xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
        return (T)xs.Deserialize(new StringReader(xml));
    }

ObjectNameType ObjectName = Deserialize<ObjectNameType>(plaintext);//та самая строка xml содержимого на входе, объект нужного типа на выходе