The XMLTextWriter class is part of the System.Xml namespace. This class contains several methods to aid in the creation of XML files from start to finish.

There are four steps to create a properly formed XML file

• Instantiate an XmlTextWriter object
• Write the XML declaration node
• Write the data
• Close the file and perform clean-up

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Common Methods (Full List)

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C# Code Sample

   1: using System;

   2: using System.IO;

   3: using System.Xml;

   4:  

   5: namespace xmlSample

   6: {

   7:     public class Sample

   8:     {

   9:         public static void Main()

  10:         {

  11:             // -- Intantiate the XmlTextWriter object

  12:             XmlTextWriter xmlWrite = new XmlTextWriter(@"c:\temp\MusicGroups.xml", null);

  13:  

  14:             // -- Write the version line

  15:             xmlWrite.WriteStartDocument();

  16:  

  17:             // -- Write a description comment

  18:             xmlWrite.WriteComment("Some of my favorite groups");

  19:  

  20:             // -- Start the root element

  21:             xmlWrite.WriteStartElement("CoolGroups");

  22:  

  23:             // -- Write list elements

  24:             xmlWrite.WriteElementString("group", "Breaking Benjamin");

  25:             xmlWrite.WriteElementString("group", "Incubus");

  26:             xmlWrite.WriteElementString("group", "311");

  27:             xmlWrite.WriteElementString("group", "Staind");

  28:             xmlWrite.WriteElementString("group", "Lifehouse");

  29:  

  30:             // -- End the root element

  31:             xmlWrite.WriteEndElement();

  32:  

  33:             // -- Write to the XML file and close the writer

  34:             xmlWrite.Close();

  35:         }

  36:     }

  37: }

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Result

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The XmlTextWriter class does much more than what I have written about here.  There is a great article by Scott Mitchell that goes into much more detail on this very useful and powerful class.

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