Writing string to XML file without formatting (C#)

Question

I wrote a function that builds an XML string based on the data saved in my application. Next up, this string should be written to an actual XML file, so it can be used. This file is then to be used in an HTML web application to feed data. I'm using the following snippet of code to do just that:

xmlDoc.Save("exercise.xml");

Easy enough, but there's a small catch. My XML file won't work properly in Firefox, because it considers white space as a childNode. Rewriting my entire web application is pretty much a no go, as it'd be too much work. I'd rather just be able to save my XML string to an XML file in a non-formatted way, since I've tested and confirmed that this works in just about every conceivable browser. The string itself doesn't contain any carriage returns or tabs, so the Save()-method probably adds it automatically. Any way to prevent it from doing that, or another easy way to circumvent this?

Please can you post an example or the xml you're saving to file. — Jon Egerton
– Jon Egerton, Commented May 13, 2011 at 12:11

Zruty · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-13 12:14:54Z

9

Take a look at this XmlDocument.Save overload. Here's a complete code example that saves XML without whitespace indentation:

using (XmlWriter xw = XmlWriter.Create("exercise.xml", new XmlWriterSettings { Indent = false }))
    doc.Save(xw);

answered May 13, 2011 at 12:14

Zruty

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Alex Zhevzhik · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-13 12:19:04Z

3

Try

xDoc.PreserveWhitespace = true;
xDoc.Save(...);

answered May 13, 2011 at 12:19

Alex Zhevzhik

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d-live · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-13 12:14:19Z

1

You have a string containing working xml, why cant you just push it out to file directly using TextWriter/StreamWriter?

answered May 13, 2011 at 12:14

d-live

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1 Comment

Jort Over a year ago

To be honest it's been a long time since I last used the Text/StreamWriter (it's been months since I wrote any C# code at all), and I already had the writing of the xml file working, so I was hoping for a quick fix. But your point is valid of course, thanks for the input.

SirViver · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-13 12:16:18Z

1

I admit I haven't tested this, but hopefully this gives you a hint towards the final solution

var xws = new XmlWriterSettings
{ 
    Indent = false, 
    NewLineOnAttributes = false 
};

using (var xtw = XmlTextWriter.Create("exercise.xml", xws))
{
    xmlDoc.Save(xtw);
}

answered May 13, 2011 at 12:16

SirViver

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user1921 · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-13 12:17:09Z

1

Have you tried just writing your string that you've built to a file? Something like this:

var myXML= "<root><node>something something something dark side</node></root>";
var file = new System.IO.StreamWriter("c:\\file.xml");
file.WriteLine(myXML);
file.Close();

answered May 13, 2011 at 12:17

user1921

2 Comments

user1921 Over a year ago

I think Zruty's answer is better but I'll leave mine up just in case.

Jort Over a year ago

I thought this would've take a lot more lines of code, thanks for the example!

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