What is the simplest way to get indented XML with line breaks from XmlDocument

Question

When I build XML up from scratch with XmlDocument  the OuterXml property already has everything nicely indented with line breaks   However  if I call LoadXml on some very  compressed  XML  no line breaks or indention  then the output of OuterXml stays that way   So      What is the simplest way to get beautified XML output from an instance of XmlDocument

User · Answer

When implementing the suggestions posted here, I had trouble with the text encoding. It seems the encoding of the XmlWriterSettings is ignored, and always overridden by the encoding of the stream. When using a StringBuilder, this is always the text encoding used internally in C#, namely UTF-16.

So here's a version which supports other encodings as well.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The formatting is completely ignored if your XMLDocument object has its preserveWhitespace property enabled when loading the document. This had me stumped for a while, so make sure not to enable that.

My final code:

public static void SaveFormattedXml(XmlDocument doc, String outputPath, Encoding encoding)
{
    XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
    settings.Indent = true;
    settings.IndentChars = "\t";
    settings.NewLineChars = "\r\n";
    settings.NewLineHandling = NewLineHandling.Replace;

    using (MemoryStream memstream = new MemoryStream())
    using (StreamWriter sr = new StreamWriter(memstream, encoding))
    using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sr, settings))
    using (FileStream fileWriter = new FileStream(outputPath, FileMode.Create))
    {
        if (doc.ChildNodes.Count > 0 && doc.ChildNodes[0] is XmlProcessingInstruction)
            doc.RemoveChild(doc.ChildNodes[0]);
        // save xml to XmlWriter made on encoding-specified text writer
        doc.Save(writer);
        // Flush the streams (not sure if this is really needed for pure mem operations)
        writer.Flush();
        // Write the underlying stream of the XmlWriter to file.
        fileWriter.Write(memstream.GetBuffer(), 0, (Int32)memstream.Length);
    }
}

This will save the formatted xml to disk, with the given text encoding.

User · Answer

public static string FormatXml string xml                try                       var doc   XDocument Parse xml               return doc ToString                      catch  Exception                        return xml

User · Answer

XmlTextWriter xw   new XmlTextWriter writer   xw Formatting   Formatting Indented

User · Answer

If you have a string of XML  rather than a doc ready for use  you can do it this way   var xmlString     lt xml gt     lt  xml gt       Your original XML string that needs indenting  xmlString   this PrettifyXml xmlString    private string PrettifyXml string xmlString        var prettyXmlString   new StringBuilder         var xmlDoc   new XmlDocument        xmlDoc LoadXml xmlString        var xmlSettings   new XmlWriterSettings                 Indent   true          IndentChars                NewLineChars     r n           NewLineHandling   NewLineHandling Replace             using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create prettyXmlString  xmlSettings                 xmlDoc Save writer              return prettyXmlString ToString

User · Answer

When implementing the suggestions posted here, I had trouble with the text encoding. It seems the encoding of the XmlWriterSettings is ignored, and always overridden by the encoding of the stream. When using a StringBuilder, this is always the text encoding used internally in C#, namely UTF-16.

So here's a version which supports other encodings as well.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The formatting is completely ignored if your XMLDocument object has its preserveWhitespace property enabled when loading the document. This had me stumped for a while, so make sure not to enable that.

My final code:

public static void SaveFormattedXml(XmlDocument doc, String outputPath, Encoding encoding)
{
    XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
    settings.Indent = true;
    settings.IndentChars = "\t";
    settings.NewLineChars = "\r\n";
    settings.NewLineHandling = NewLineHandling.Replace;

    using (MemoryStream memstream = new MemoryStream())
    using (StreamWriter sr = new StreamWriter(memstream, encoding))
    using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sr, settings))
    using (FileStream fileWriter = new FileStream(outputPath, FileMode.Create))
    {
        if (doc.ChildNodes.Count > 0 && doc.ChildNodes[0] is XmlProcessingInstruction)
            doc.RemoveChild(doc.ChildNodes[0]);
        // save xml to XmlWriter made on encoding-specified text writer
        doc.Save(writer);
        // Flush the streams (not sure if this is really needed for pure mem operations)
        writer.Flush();
        // Write the underlying stream of the XmlWriter to file.
        fileWriter.Write(memstream.GetBuffer(), 0, (Int32)memstream.Length);
    }
}

This will save the formatted xml to disk, with the given text encoding.

User · Answer

A shorter extension method version  public static string ToIndentedString  this XmlDocument doc         var stringWriter   new StringWriter new StringBuilder         var xmlTextWriter   new XmlTextWriter stringWriter   Formatting   Formatting Indented       doc Save  xmlTextWriter        return stringWriter ToString

User · Answer

A more simplified approach based on the accepted answer   static public string Beautify this XmlDocument doc        StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder        XmlWriterSettings settings   new XmlWriterSettings               Indent   true             using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create sb  settings             doc Save writer              return sb ToString         Setting the new line is not necessary  Indent characters also has the default two spaces so I preferred not to set it as well

User · Answer

Or even easier if you have access to Linq  try       RequestPane Text   System Xml Linq XElement Parse RequestPane Text  ToString      catch  System Xml XmlException xex                displayException  Problem with formating text in Request Pane     xex

User · Answer

If the above Beautify method is being called for an XmlDocument that already contains an XmlProcessingInstruction child node the following exception is thrown      Cannot write XML declaration    WriteStartDocument method has already   written it    This is my modified version of the original one to get rid of the exception   private static string beautify      XmlDocument doc        var sb   new StringBuilder        var settings           new XmlWriterSettings                               Indent   true                  IndentChars                            NewLineChars   Environment NewLine                  NewLineHandling   NewLineHandling Replace                      using  var writer   XmlWriter Create sb  settings                 if  doc ChildNodes 0  is XmlProcessingInstruction                        doc RemoveChild doc ChildNodes 0                       doc Save writer           return sb ToString              It works for me now  probably you would need to scan all child nodes for the XmlProcessingInstruction node  not just the first one     Update April 2015   Since I had another case where the encoding was wrong  I searched for how to enforce UTF-8 without BOM  I found this blog post and created a function based on it   private static string beautify string xml        var doc   new XmlDocument        doc LoadXml xml        var settings   new XmlWriterSettings               Indent   true          IndentChars     t           NewLineChars   Environment NewLine          NewLineHandling   NewLineHandling Replace          Encoding   new UTF8Encoding false              using  var ms   new MemoryStream        using  var writer   XmlWriter Create ms  settings                 doc Save writer           var xmlString   Encoding UTF8 GetString ms ToArray             return xmlString

User · Answer

A more simplified approach based on the accepted answer   static public string Beautify this XmlDocument doc        StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder        XmlWriterSettings settings   new XmlWriterSettings               Indent   true             using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create sb  settings             doc Save writer              return sb ToString         Setting the new line is not necessary  Indent characters also has the default two spaces so I preferred not to set it as well

User · Answer

XmlTextWriter xw   new XmlTextWriter writer   xw Formatting   Formatting Indented

User · Answer

using System  using System Xml  using System Xml Linq   class Program       static void Main                 XmlDocument xmlDoc   new XmlDocument            xmlDoc Load Environment GetFolderPath Environment SpecialFolder Desktop      quot  Customers xml quot                another function of XDocument Parse   is formatting XML code which gived as string             Console WriteLine XDocument Parse xmlDoc InnerXml

User · Answer

As adapted from Erika Ehrli s blog  this should do it   XmlDocument doc   new XmlDocument    doc LoadXml   lt item gt  lt name gt wrench lt  name gt  lt  item gt        Save the document to a file and auto-indent the output  using  XmlTextWriter writer   new XmlTextWriter  data xml   null         writer Formatting   Formatting Indented      doc Save writer

User · Answer

Based on the other answers  I looked into XmlTextWriter and came up with the following helper method   static public string Beautify this XmlDocument doc        StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder        XmlWriterSettings settings   new XmlWriterSettings               Indent   true          IndentChars                 NewLineChars     r n           NewLineHandling   NewLineHandling Replace            using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create sb  settings             doc Save writer             return sb ToString        It s a bit more code than I hoped for  but it works just peachy

User · Answer

XmlTextWriter xw   new XmlTextWriter writer   xw Formatting   Formatting Indented

User · Answer

Based on the other answers  I looked into XmlTextWriter and came up with the following helper method   static public string Beautify this XmlDocument doc        StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder        XmlWriterSettings settings   new XmlWriterSettings               Indent   true          IndentChars                 NewLineChars     r n           NewLineHandling   NewLineHandling Replace            using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create sb  settings             doc Save writer             return sb ToString        It s a bit more code than I hoped for  but it works just peachy

User · Answer

A simple way is to use   writer WriteRaw space char     Like this sample code  this code is what I used to create a tree view like structure using XMLWriter    private void generateXML string filename                        using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create filename                                 writer WriteStartDocument                      new line                 writer WriteRaw   n                    writer WriteStartElement  treeitems                      new line                 writer WriteRaw   n                    foreach  RootItem root in roots                                          indent                     writer WriteRaw   t                        writer WriteStartElement  treeitem                        writer WriteAttributeString  name   root name                       writer WriteAttributeString  uri   root uri                       writer WriteAttributeString  fontsize   root fontsize                       writer WriteAttributeString  icon   root icon                       if  root children Count    0                                                foreach  ChildItem child in children                                                          indent                             writer WriteRaw   t                                writer WriteStartElement  treeitem                                writer WriteAttributeString  name   child name                               writer WriteAttributeString  uri   child uri                               writer WriteAttributeString  fontsize   child fontsize                               writer WriteAttributeString  icon   child icon                               writer WriteEndElement                                  new line                             writer WriteRaw   n                                                                        writer WriteEndElement                          new line                     writer WriteRaw   n                                       writer WriteEndElement                    writer WriteEndDocument                                This way you can add tab or line breaks in the way you are normally used to  i e   t or  n

User · Answer

Based on the other answers  I looked into XmlTextWriter and came up with the following helper method   static public string Beautify this XmlDocument doc        StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder        XmlWriterSettings settings   new XmlWriterSettings               Indent   true          IndentChars                 NewLineChars     r n           NewLineHandling   NewLineHandling Replace            using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create sb  settings             doc Save writer             return sb ToString        It s a bit more code than I hoped for  but it works just peachy

User · Answer

using System  using System Xml  using System Xml Linq   class Program       static void Main                 XmlDocument xmlDoc   new XmlDocument            xmlDoc Load Environment GetFolderPath Environment SpecialFolder Desktop      quot  Customers xml quot                another function of XDocument Parse   is formatting XML code which gived as string             Console WriteLine XDocument Parse xmlDoc InnerXml

User · Answer

public static string FormatXml string xml                try                       var doc   XDocument Parse xml               return doc ToString                      catch  Exception                        return xml

User · Answer

If you have a string of XML  rather than a doc ready for use  you can do it this way   var xmlString     lt xml gt     lt  xml gt       Your original XML string that needs indenting  xmlString   this PrettifyXml xmlString    private string PrettifyXml string xmlString        var prettyXmlString   new StringBuilder         var xmlDoc   new XmlDocument        xmlDoc LoadXml xmlString        var xmlSettings   new XmlWriterSettings                 Indent   true          IndentChars                NewLineChars     r n           NewLineHandling   NewLineHandling Replace             using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create prettyXmlString  xmlSettings                 xmlDoc Save writer              return prettyXmlString ToString

User · Answer

As adapted from Erika Ehrli s blog  this should do it   XmlDocument doc   new XmlDocument    doc LoadXml   lt item gt  lt name gt wrench lt  name gt  lt  item gt        Save the document to a file and auto-indent the output  using  XmlTextWriter writer   new XmlTextWriter  data xml   null         writer Formatting   Formatting Indented      doc Save writer

User · Answer

As adapted from Erika Ehrli s blog  this should do it   XmlDocument doc   new XmlDocument    doc LoadXml   lt item gt  lt name gt wrench lt  name gt  lt  item gt        Save the document to a file and auto-indent the output  using  XmlTextWriter writer   new XmlTextWriter  data xml   null         writer Formatting   Formatting Indented      doc Save writer

User · Answer

A simple way is to use   writer WriteRaw space char     Like this sample code  this code is what I used to create a tree view like structure using XMLWriter    private void generateXML string filename                        using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create filename                                 writer WriteStartDocument                      new line                 writer WriteRaw   n                    writer WriteStartElement  treeitems                      new line                 writer WriteRaw   n                    foreach  RootItem root in roots                                          indent                     writer WriteRaw   t                        writer WriteStartElement  treeitem                        writer WriteAttributeString  name   root name                       writer WriteAttributeString  uri   root uri                       writer WriteAttributeString  fontsize   root fontsize                       writer WriteAttributeString  icon   root icon                       if  root children Count    0                                                foreach  ChildItem child in children                                                          indent                             writer WriteRaw   t                                writer WriteStartElement  treeitem                                writer WriteAttributeString  name   child name                               writer WriteAttributeString  uri   child uri                               writer WriteAttributeString  fontsize   child fontsize                               writer WriteAttributeString  icon   child icon                               writer WriteEndElement                                  new line                             writer WriteRaw   n                                                                        writer WriteEndElement                          new line                     writer WriteRaw   n                                       writer WriteEndElement                    writer WriteEndDocument                                This way you can add tab or line breaks in the way you are normally used to  i e   t or  n

User · Answer

XmlTextWriter xw   new XmlTextWriter writer   xw Formatting   Formatting Indented

User · Answer

Based on the other answers  I looked into XmlTextWriter and came up with the following helper method   static public string Beautify this XmlDocument doc        StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder        XmlWriterSettings settings   new XmlWriterSettings               Indent   true          IndentChars                 NewLineChars     r n           NewLineHandling   NewLineHandling Replace            using  XmlWriter writer   XmlWriter Create sb  settings             doc Save writer             return sb ToString        It s a bit more code than I hoped for  but it works just peachy

User · Answer

As adapted from Erika Ehrli s blog  this should do it   XmlDocument doc   new XmlDocument    doc LoadXml   lt item gt  lt name gt wrench lt  name gt  lt  item gt        Save the document to a file and auto-indent the output  using  XmlTextWriter writer   new XmlTextWriter  data xml   null         writer Formatting   Formatting Indented      doc Save writer

User · Answer

Or even easier if you have access to Linq  try       RequestPane Text   System Xml Linq XElement Parse RequestPane Text  ToString      catch  System Xml XmlException xex                displayException  Problem with formating text in Request Pane     xex

User · Answer

A shorter extension method version  public static string ToIndentedString  this XmlDocument doc         var stringWriter   new StringWriter new StringBuilder         var xmlTextWriter   new XmlTextWriter stringWriter   Formatting   Formatting Indented       doc Save  xmlTextWriter        return stringWriter ToString

User · Answer

If the above Beautify method is being called for an XmlDocument that already contains an XmlProcessingInstruction child node the following exception is thrown      Cannot write XML declaration    WriteStartDocument method has already   written it    This is my modified version of the original one to get rid of the exception   private static string beautify      XmlDocument doc        var sb   new StringBuilder        var settings           new XmlWriterSettings                               Indent   true                  IndentChars                            NewLineChars   Environment NewLine                  NewLineHandling   NewLineHandling Replace                      using  var writer   XmlWriter Create sb  settings                 if  doc ChildNodes 0  is XmlProcessingInstruction                        doc RemoveChild doc ChildNodes 0                       doc Save writer           return sb ToString              It works for me now  probably you would need to scan all child nodes for the XmlProcessingInstruction node  not just the first one     Update April 2015   Since I had another case where the encoding was wrong  I searched for how to enforce UTF-8 without BOM  I found this blog post and created a function based on it   private static string beautify string xml        var doc   new XmlDocument        doc LoadXml xml        var settings   new XmlWriterSettings               Indent   true          IndentChars     t           NewLineChars   Environment NewLine          NewLineHandling   NewLineHandling Replace          Encoding   new UTF8Encoding false              using  var ms   new MemoryStream        using  var writer   XmlWriter Create ms  settings                 doc Save writer           var xmlString   Encoding UTF8 GetString ms ToArray             return xmlString

[c#] What is the simplest way to get indented XML with line breaks from XmlDocument?

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