In C#, what is the best method to format a string as XML?

Question

I am creating a lightweight editor in C# and would like to know the best method for converting a string into a nicely formatted XML string. I would hope that there\'s a pub

Answer 1

Using the new System.Xml.Linq namespace (System.Xml.Linq Assembly) you can use the following:

string theString = "blah";
XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(theString);

You can also create a fragment with:

string theString = "blah";
XElement element = XElement.Parse(theString);

If the string is not yet XML, you can do something like this:

string theString = "blah";
//creates blah
XElement element = new XElement(XName.Get("nodeName"), theString); 

Something to note in this last example is that XElement will XML Encode the provided string.

I highly recommend the new XLINQ classes. They are lighter weight, and easier to user that most of the existing XmlDocument-related types.