Write XML in Base64 encoding

Question

Following my questions about storing data, it has been suggested that I could use XML but then obfuscate the file by encoding it using Base64. I like this idea, and I have a

Answer 1

Here is an example using a MemoryStream

Save the XML data using MemoryStream to base64 encode the data and write it to a file.

using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{   
    // Memory Stream
    using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(ms,settings)) 
    {
        writer.WriteStartDocument();
        writer.WriteStartElement("Database");
        writer.WriteStartElement("Entry");
        writer.WriteAttributeString("key", "value");
        writer.WriteEndElement();
        writer.WriteEndElement();

        writer.Flush();
        writer.Close();

        // XML Data (Debug)
        Console.WriteLine(new UTF8Encoding().GetString(ms.ToArray()));

        // Pre encoding hex (Debug)
        Console.WriteLine(BitConverter.ToString(ms.ToArray()));

        string s = Convert.ToBase64String(ms.ToArray());
        Console.WriteLine(s); // (Debug)

        // Post encoding
        File.WriteAllText(@"C:\Temp\A.enc", s);
    }
}

Read the file back

// Read encoded file back to xml
string enc_text = File.ReadAllText(@"C:\Temp\A.enc");
Console.WriteLine(enc_text); // (Debug)

// Pre encoding hex
byte[] mem_bytes = Convert.FromBase64String(enc_text);
Console.WriteLine(BitConverter.ToString(mem_bytes)); // (Debug)

// XML Data
Console.WriteLine(new UTF8Encoding().GetString(mem_bytes));

// Read byte array into Reader
using (var stream = new MemoryStream(mem_bytes))
{
    using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(stream))
    {
        // Use reader as desired
    }
}