Format XML in C#

September 09, 2009

Below is a small snippet showing how to format (or re-format) XML so it’s indented. XML isn’t stored in this humanly readable way in databases (or in System.XML’s various writers), so this method makes the XML easier on the eyes.

      
        /// <summary>
      
        /// Formats the provided XML so it's indented and humanly-readable.
      
        /// </summary>
      
        /// <param name="inputXml">The input XML to format.</param>
      
        /// <returns></returns>
      
        public static string FormatXml(string inputXml)
      
        {
      
        	XmlDocument document = new XmlDocument();
      
        	document.Load(new StringReader(inputXml));
      
        	StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
      
        	using (XmlTextWriter writer = new XmlTextWriter(new StringWriter(builder)))
      
        	{
      
        		writer.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
      
        		document.Save(writer);
      
        	}
      
        	return builder.ToString();
      
        }

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	/// <summary>
	/// Formats the provided XML so it's indented and humanly-readable.
	/// </summary>
	/// <param name="inputXml">The input XML to format.</param>
	/// <returns></returns>
	public static string FormatXml(string inputXml)
	{
	XmlDocument document = new XmlDocument();
	document.Load(new StringReader(inputXml));

	StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
	using (XmlTextWriter writer = new XmlTextWriter(new StringWriter(builder)))
	{
	writer.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
	document.Save(writer);
	}

	return builder.ToString();
	}