.NET & XML

XmlWriter and Its Subclasses

XmlWriter is an abstract base class that defines the interface for creating XML output programmatically. It contains methods such as WriteStartElement( ) and WriteEndElement( ) to write data. XmlWriter maintains the state of the XML document as it writes, so it knows which start element or attribute to close when you call WriteEndElement( ) or WriteEndAttribute( ).

XmlTextWriter is the subclass of XmlWriter, which provides support for output of XML to any Stream, filename, or TextWriter. In addition to all the required features of an XmlWriter, XmlTextWriter allows you to set the formatting of the output, using the Formatting, Indentation, IndentChar, Namespaces, and QuoteChar properties.

The XmlTextWriter formatting properties are described in Table 3-6.

Table 3-6. XmlTextWriter formatting properties

Property	Type	Description
Formatting	System.Xml.Formatting	Specify Formatting.None if the XML is to be produced without indentation, or Formatting.Indented to produce indented XML. Formatting.Indented makes for more readable output, but the canonical XML produced is identical.
Indentation	int	If Formatting is set to Formatting.Indented, Indentation specifies the number of characters by which to indent each successive level of markup.
IndentChar	char	If Formatting is set to Formatting.Indented, IndentChar specifies the character with which to indent each successive level of markup. To ensure valid XML, you should use any valid XML whitespace ...