C# XmlWriter

last modified July 5, 2023

C# XmlWriter tutorial shows how to write XML data in C# with XmlWriter.

XmlWriter

XmlWriter represents a writer that provides a fast, non-cached, forward-only way to generate streams or files with XML.

The XmlWriter is available in the System.Xml namespace.

C# XmlWriter example

The following example creates a simple C# XmlWriter.

using System.Xml;

var sts = new XmlWriterSettings()
{
    Indent = true,
};

using XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create("data.xml", sts);

writer.WriteStartDocument();

writer.WriteStartElement("value");
writer.WriteValue(6); 
writer.WriteEndElement();

writer.WriteEndDocument();

Console.WriteLine("XML document created");

We create a new XML document. It contains the XML declaration and a single XML tag.

var sts = new XmlWriterSettings()
{
    Indent = true,
};

using XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create("data.xml", sts);

The XmlWriter is created with the Create method. We pass the name of the document and the settings to the method.

writer.WriteStartDocument();

The WriteStartDocument method starts a new document.

writer.WriteStartElement("value");
writer.WriteValue(6); 
writer.WriteEndElement();

The WriteStartElement and the WriteEndElement pair is used to add a new element to the document. The WriteValue writes a single simple-typed value.

writer.WriteEndDocument();

The WriteEndDocument closes any open elements or attributes and puts the writer back in the start state.

$ dotnet run 
XML document created

$ cat data.xml 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<value>6</value>

C# XmlWriter example II

The following example creates an XML file with two books.

using System.Xml;

var sts = new XmlWriterSettings()
{
    Indent = true,
};

using var writer = XmlWriter.Create("books.xml", sts);

writer.WriteStartDocument();
writer.WriteStartElement("bookstore");

writer.WriteStartElement("book");
writer.WriteAttributeString("genre", "Science Fiction");

writer.WriteStartElement("title");
writer.WriteString("Dune");
writer.WriteEndElement();

writer.WriteStartElement("author");
writer.WriteString("Frank Herbert");
writer.WriteEndElement();

writer.WriteStartElement("price");
writer.WriteString("8.99");
writer.WriteEndElement();

writer.WriteEndElement(); // end of book

writer.WriteStartElement("book");
writer.WriteAttributeString("genre", "Novel");

writer.WriteStartElement("title");
writer.WriteString("Old Goriot");
writer.WriteEndElement();

writer.WriteStartElement("author");
writer.WriteString("Honoré de Balzac");
writer.WriteEndElement();

writer.WriteStartElement("price");
writer.WriteString("9.0");
writer.WriteEndElement();

writer.WriteEndElement(); // end of book
writer.WriteEndDocument();

Console.WriteLine("XML document created");

In addition to XML tags, we also create attributes with WriteAttributeString.

$ dotnet run
XML document created

$ cat books.xml 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<bookstore>
  <book genre="Science Fiction">
    <title>Dune</title>
    <author>Frank Herbert</author>
    <price>8.99</price>
  </book>
  <book genre="Novel">
    <title>Old Goriot</title>
    <author>Honoré de Balzac</author>
    <price>9.0</price>
  </book>
</bookstore>

C# XmlWriter example III

The next example creates an XML file with products.

using System.Xml;

var sts = new XmlWriterSettings()
{
    Indent = true,
};

using var writer = XmlWriter.Create("products.xml", sts);

var products = new List<Product>
{
    new Product(1, "Product A", 12.2M),
    new Product(2, "Product B", 11.3M),
    new Product(3, "Product C", 9M),
    new Product(4, "Product D", 5.6M),
    new Product(5, "Product E", 11.7M)
};

writer.WriteStartDocument();
writer.WriteStartElement("products");

foreach (var product in products)
{
    writer.WriteStartElement("product");

    writer.WriteStartElement("id");
    writer.WriteValue(product.id);
    writer.WriteEndElement();

    writer.WriteStartElement("name");
    writer.WriteValue(product.name);
    writer.WriteEndElement();

    writer.WriteStartElement("price");
    writer.WriteValue(product.price);
    writer.WriteEndElement();

    writer.WriteEndElement();  // end product
}

writer.WriteEndElement();
writer.WriteEndDocument();

Console.WriteLine("XML document created");

record Product(int id, string name, decimal price);

We have a list of products created with C# record type. We go over the list and generate an XML file from the objects.

$ dotnet run
XML document created
$ cat products.xml 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<products>
  <product>
    <id>1</id>
    <name>Product A</name>
    <price>12.2</price>
  </product>
  <product>
    <id>2</id>
    <name>Product B</name>
    <price>11.3</price>
  </product>
  <product>
    <id>3</id>
    <name>Product C</name>
    <price>9</price>
  </product>
  <product>
    <id>4</id>
    <name>Product D</name>
    <price>5.6</price>
  </product>
  <product>
    <id>5</id>
    <name>Product E</name>
    <price>11.7</price>
  </product>
</products>

Source

XmlWriter class - language reference

In this article we have written XML data with XmlWriter.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar and I am a passionate programmer with many years of programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. So far, I have written over 1400 articles and 8 e-books. I have over eight years of experience in teaching programming.

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