Format XML string to print friendly XML string

Question

I have an XML string as such    lt  xml version  1 0   gt  lt response gt  lt error code  1  gt  Success lt  error gt  lt  response gt    There are no lines between one element and another  and thus is very difficult to read  I want a function that formats the above string    lt  xml version  1 0   gt   lt response gt   lt error code  1  gt  Success lt  error gt   lt  response gt     Without resorting to manually write the format function myself  is there any  Net library or code snippet that I can use offhand

User · Answer

Check the following link  How to pretty-print XML  Unfortunately  the link now returns 404      The method in the link takes an XML string as an argument and returns a well-formed  indented  XML string    I just copied the sample code from the link to make this answer more comprehensive and convenient     public static String PrettyPrint String XML        String Result            MemoryStream MS   new MemoryStream        XmlTextWriter W   new XmlTextWriter MS  Encoding Unicode       XmlDocument D     new XmlDocument         try                  Load the XmlDocument with the XML          D LoadXml XML            W Formatting   Formatting Indented              Write the XML into a formatting XmlTextWriter         D WriteContentTo W           W Flush            MS Flush                Have to rewind the MemoryStream in order to read            its contents          MS Position   0              Read MemoryStream contents into a StreamReader          StreamReader SR   new StreamReader MS               Extract the text from the StreamReader          String FormattedXML   SR ReadToEnd             Result   FormattedXML            catch  XmlException                   MS Close        W Close         return Result

User · Answer

Use XmlTextWriter     public static string PrintXML string xml        string result            MemoryStream mStream   new MemoryStream        XmlTextWriter writer   new XmlTextWriter mStream  Encoding Unicode       XmlDocument document   new XmlDocument         try                  Load the XmlDocument with the XML          document LoadXml xml            writer Formatting   Formatting Indented              Write the XML into a formatting XmlTextWriter         document WriteContentTo writer           writer Flush            mStream Flush                Have to rewind the MemoryStream in order to read            its contents          mStream Position   0              Read MemoryStream contents into a StreamReader          StreamReader sReader   new StreamReader mStream               Extract the text from the StreamReader          string formattedXml   sReader ReadToEnd             result   formattedXml            catch  XmlException                   Handle the exception            mStream Close        writer Close         return result

User · Answer

NET 2 0 ignoring name resolving  and with proper resource-disposal  indentation  preserve-whitespace and custom encoding   public static string Beautify System Xml XmlDocument doc        string strRetValue   null      System Text Encoding enc   System Text Encoding UTF8         enc   new System Text UTF8Encoding false        System Xml XmlWriterSettings xmlWriterSettings   new System Xml XmlWriterSettings        xmlWriterSettings Encoding   enc      xmlWriterSettings Indent   true      xmlWriterSettings IndentChars               xmlWriterSettings NewLineChars     r n       xmlWriterSettings NewLineHandling   System Xml NewLineHandling Replace        xmlWriterSettings OmitXmlDeclaration   true      xmlWriterSettings ConformanceLevel   System Xml ConformanceLevel Document        using  System IO MemoryStream ms   new System IO MemoryStream                  using  System Xml XmlWriter writer   System Xml XmlWriter Create ms  xmlWriterSettings                         doc Save writer               writer Flush                ms Flush                 writer Close                 End Using writer          ms Position   0          using  System IO StreamReader sr   new System IO StreamReader ms  enc                            Extract the text from the StreamReader              strRetValue   sr ReadToEnd                 sr Close                 End Using sr          ms Close             End Using ms              System Text StringBuilder sb   new System Text StringBuilder       Always yields UTF-16  no matter the set encoding     using  System Xml XmlWriter writer   System Xml XmlWriter Create sb  settings                 doc Save writer           writer Close             End Using writer     strRetValue   sb ToString        sb Length   0      sb   null              xmlWriterSettings   null      return strRetValue       End Function Beautify   Usage   System Xml XmlDocument xmlDoc   new System Xml XmlDocument    xmlDoc XmlResolver   null  xmlDoc PreserveWhitespace   true  xmlDoc Load  C  Test svg    string SVG   Beautify xmlDoc

User · Answer

This one  from kristopherjohnson is heaps better    It doesn t require an XML document header either  Has clearer exceptions Adds extra behaviour options  OmitXmlDeclaration   true  NewLineOnAttributes   true Less lines of code  static string PrettyXml string xml        var stringBuilder   new StringBuilder         var element   XElement Parse xml        var settings   new XmlWriterSettings        settings OmitXmlDeclaration   true      settings Indent   true      settings NewLineOnAttributes   true       using  var xmlWriter   XmlWriter Create stringBuilder  settings                 element Save xmlWriter              return stringBuilder ToString

User · Answer

The simple solution that is working for me           XmlDocument xmlDoc   new XmlDocument            StringWriter sw   new StringWriter            xmlDoc LoadXml rawStringXML           xmlDoc Save sw           String formattedXml   sw ToString

User · Answer

Customizable Pretty XML output with UTF-8 XML declaration  The following class definition gives a simple method to convert an input XML string into formatted output XML with the xml declaration as UTF-8  It supports all the configuration options that the XmlWriterSettings class offers    using System  using System Text  using System Xml  using System IO   namespace CJBS Demo            lt summary gt          Supports formatting for XML in a format that is easily human-readable           lt  summary gt      public static class PrettyXmlFormatter                     lt summary gt              Generates formatted UTF-8 XML for the content in the  lt paramref name  doc   gt               lt  summary gt               lt param name  doc  gt XmlDocument for which content will be returned as a formatted string lt  param gt               lt returns gt Formatted  indented  XML string lt  returns gt          public static string GetPrettyXml XmlDocument doc                           Configure how XML is to be formatted             XmlWriterSettings settings   new XmlWriterSettings                                Indent   true                   IndentChars                          NewLineChars   System Environment NewLine                   NewLineHandling   NewLineHandling Replace                    NewLineOnAttributes   true                    OmitXmlDeclaration   false                                Use wrapper class that supports UTF-8 encoding             StringWriterWithEncoding sw   new StringWriterWithEncoding Encoding UTF8                   Output formatted XML to StringWriter             using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create sw  settings                                 doc Save writer                                 Get formatted text from writer             return sw ToString                              lt summary gt              Wrapper class around  lt see cref  StringWriter   gt  that supports encoding              Attribution  http   stackoverflow com a 427737 3063884              lt  summary gt          private sealed class StringWriterWithEncoding   StringWriter                       private readonly Encoding encoding                    lt summary gt                  Creates a new  lt see cref  PrettyXmlFormatter   gt  with the specified encoding                  lt  summary gt                   lt param name  encoding  gt  lt  param gt              public StringWriterWithEncoding Encoding encoding                                this encoding   encoding                                  lt summary gt                  Encoding to use when dealing with text                  lt  summary gt              public override Encoding Encoding                               get   return encoding                                      Possibilities for further improvement -   An additional method GetPrettyXml XmlDocument doc  XmlWriterSettings settings  could be created that allows the caller to customize the output  An additional method GetPrettyXml String rawXml  could be added that supports parsing raw text  rather than have the client use the XmlDocument  In my case  I needed to manipulate the XML using the XmlDocument  hence I didn t add this    Usage    String myFormattedXml   null  XmlDocument doc   new XmlDocument    try       doc LoadXml myRawXmlString       myFormattedXml   PrettyXmlFormatter GetPrettyXml doc     catch XmlException ex           Failed to parse XML -- use original XML as formatted XML     myFormattedXml   myRawXmlString

User · Answer

if you load up the XMLDoc I m pretty sure the  ToString   function posses an overload for this   But is this for debugging   The reason that it is sent like that is to take up less space  i e stripping unneccessary whitespace from the XML

User · Answer

I tried   internal static void IndentedNewWSDLString string filePath        var xml   File ReadAllText filePath       XDocument doc   XDocument Parse xml       File WriteAllText filePath  doc ToString         it is working fine as expected

User · Answer

You will have to parse the content somehow     I find using LINQ the most easy way to do it  Again  it all depends on your exact scenario  Here s a working example using LINQ to format an input XML string   string FormatXml string xml         try                 XDocument doc   XDocument Parse xml            return doc ToString                catch  Exception                     Handle and throw if fatal exception here  don t just ignore them          return xml               using statements are ommitted for brevity

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