Creating a XML Document from scratch without using a file in C#

One thing that’s annoying is that majority of the XML example assumes that you are loading an XML document from a file, so here’s a simple code example for generating it entirely in memory.

// Create the xml document containe
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();// Create the XML Declaration, and append it to XML document
XmlDeclaration dec = doc.CreateXmlDeclaration("1.0", null, null);
doc.AppendChild(dec);// Create the root element
XmlElement root = doc.CreateElement("Library");
doc.AppendChild(root);

// Create Books
// Note that to set the text inside the element,
// you use .InnerText instead of .Value (which will throw an exception).
// You use SetAttribute to set attribute
XmlElement book = doc.CreateElement("Book");
book.SetAttribute("BookType", "Hardcover");
XmlElement title = doc.CreateElement("Title");
title.InnerText = "Door Number Three";
XmlElement author = doc.CreateElement("Author");
author.InnerText = "O'Leary, Patrick";
book.AppendChild(title);
book.AppendChild(author);
root.AppendChild(book);

book = doc.CreateElement("Book");
book.SetAttribute("BookType", "Paperback");
title = doc.CreateElement("Title");
title.InnerText = "Lord of Light";
author = doc.CreateElement("Author");
author.InnerText = "Zelanzy, Roger";
book.AppendChild(title);
book.AppendChild(author);
root.AppendChild(book);

string xmlOutput = doc.OuterXml;

The same code but using an XMLWriter to a memory stream.


XmlWriterSettings wSettings = new XmlWriterSettings();
wSettings.Indent = true;
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
XmlWriter xw = XmlWriter.Create(ms, wSettings);// Write Declaration
xw.WriteStartDocument();

// Write the root node
xw.WriteStartElement("Library");

// Write the books and the book elements
xw.WriteStartElement("Book");
xw.WriteStartAttribute("BookType");
xw.WriteString("Hardback");
xw.WriteEndAttribute();

xw.WriteStartElement("Title");
xw.WriteString("Door Number Three");
xw.WriteEndElement();
xw.WriteStartElement("Author");
xw.WriteString("O'Leary, Patrick");
xw.WriteEndElement();

xw.WriteEndElement();

// Write another book
xw.WriteStartElement("Book");
xw.WriteStartAttribute("BookType");
xw.WriteString("Paperback");
xw.WriteEndAttribute();

xw.WriteStartElement("Title");
xw.WriteString("Lord of Light");
xw.WriteEndElement();
xw.WriteStartElement("Author");
xw.WriteString("Zelanzy, Roger");
xw.WriteEndElement();

xw.WriteEndElement();

// Close the document
xw.WriteEndDocument();

// Flush the write
xw.Flush();

Byte[] buffer = new Byte[ms.Length];
buffer = ms.ToArray();
string xmlOutput = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer);