title: DataContractSerializer - how can I output the xml to a string (as opposed to a file)
body: <p>I had a quick question regarding the datacontractserializer. Maybe it's more of a stream question. I found a piece of code that writes the xml to a filestream. I basically don't want the file and just need the string output.</p>
  
  <pre><code>public static string DataContractSerializeObject&lt;T&gt;(T objectToSerialize)
  {   
      var fs = new FileStream("test.xml", FileMode.OpenOrCreate);
      var serializer = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(T));
      serializer.WriteObject(fs, objectToSerialize);
      fs.Close();
      return fs.ToString();
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>fs.ToString() is obviously not what I'm looking for. What stream or writer etc, can I use just to return the proper string and not create a file? I did look at the XML the filestream created and it's exactly what I'm looking for. The XmlSerializer wrote the XML a bit strange and I prefer the output of the DataContractSerializer in this case. Can anyone point me in the right direction?</p>