var settings = new XmlWriterSettings { Indent = true, ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Auto };
var serializer = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Country[]));
 using (XmlWriter xml = XmlWriter.Create("SerializedEntities/countries.xml", settings))
 {
 if (xml != null)
 {
   xml.WriteStartDocument();
   serializer.WriteObject(xml, result.Result.Countries);
 }
}

var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
var serializer = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Country[]));
Country[] countries;
using (Stream result = File.Open("SerializedEntities/countries.xml", FileMode.Open))
{
  countries = (Country[])serializer.ReadObject(result);
}

// create fake obj
var obj = createFakeObject();

// create instance of sharpSerializer
// with standard constructor it serializes to xml
// with overloaded constructor to its own binary format
var serializer = new SharpSerializer();

// serialize
serializer.Serialize(obj, "test.xml");

// deserialize
var obj2 = serializer.Deserialize("test.xml");