How to create an XML document using XmlDocument?

Question

how to create an XML document like this?

<body>
  <level1>
    <level2>text</level2>
    <level2>other text</level2>
  </level1>
</body>

using XmlDocument in C#

Use XDocument instead stackoverflow.com/questions/4562571/… — Amiram Korach
– Amiram Korach, Commented Jul 15, 2012 at 14:30

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:34:37Z

231

What about:

#region Using Statements
using System;
using System.Xml;
#endregion 

class Program {
    static void Main( string[ ] args ) {
        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument( );

        //(1) the xml declaration is recommended, but not mandatory
        XmlDeclaration xmlDeclaration = doc.CreateXmlDeclaration( "1.0", "UTF-8", null );
        XmlElement root = doc.DocumentElement;
        doc.InsertBefore( xmlDeclaration, root );

        //(2) string.Empty makes cleaner code
        XmlElement element1 = doc.CreateElement( string.Empty, "body", string.Empty );
        doc.AppendChild( element1 );

        XmlElement element2 = doc.CreateElement( string.Empty, "level1", string.Empty );
        element1.AppendChild( element2 );

        XmlElement element3 = doc.CreateElement( string.Empty, "level2", string.Empty );
        XmlText text1 = doc.CreateTextNode( "text" );
        element3.AppendChild( text1 );
        element2.AppendChild( element3 );

        XmlElement element4 = doc.CreateElement( string.Empty, "level2", string.Empty );
        XmlText text2 = doc.CreateTextNode( "other text" );
        element4.AppendChild( text2 );
        element2.AppendChild( element4 );

        doc.Save( "D:\\document.xml" );
    }
}

_{(1) Does a valid XML file require an xml declaration?}
_{(2) What is the difference between String.Empty and “” (empty string)?}

The result is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<body>
  <level1>
    <level2>text</level2>
    <level2>other text</level2>
  </level1>
</body>

But I recommend you to use LINQ to XML which is simpler and more readable like here:

#region Using Statements
using System;
using System.Xml.Linq;
#endregion 

class Program {
    static void Main( string[ ] args ) {
        XDocument doc = new XDocument( new XElement( "body", 
                                           new XElement( "level1", 
                                               new XElement( "level2", "text" ), 
                                               new XElement( "level2", "other text" ) ) ) );
        doc.Save( "D:\\document.xml" );
    }
}

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:34

CommunityBot

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answered Jul 15, 2012 at 14:59

Omar

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2 Comments

CodeManX Over a year ago

The first example helped me to write an extension function for an XSLT stylesheet, that returns a set of nodes to the processor. Thanks!

Robert Perry Over a year ago

I'd argue that if you replaced the XmlElement with var, the first one would be far easier to work with

Teo · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-26 11:18:18Z

Working with a dictionary ->level2 above comes from a dictionary in my case (just in case anybody will find it useful) Trying the first example I stumbled over this error: "This document already has a 'DocumentElement' node." I was inspired by the answer here

and edited my code: (xmlDoc.DocumentElement.AppendChild(body))

//a dictionary:
Dictionary<string, string> Level2Data 
{
    {"level2", "text"},
    {"level2", "other text"},
    {"same_level2", "more text"}
}
//xml Decalration:
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
XmlDeclaration xmlDeclaration = xmlDoc.CreateXmlDeclaration("1.0", "UTF-8", null);
XmlElement root = xmlDoc.DocumentElement;
xmlDoc.InsertBefore(xmlDeclaration, root);
// add body
XmlElement body = xmlDoc.CreateElement(string.Empty, "body", string.Empty);
xmlDoc.AppendChild(body);
XmlElement body = xmlDoc.CreateElement(string.Empty, "body", string.Empty);
xmlDoc.DocumentElement.AppendChild(body); //without DocumentElement ->ERR



foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> entry in Level2Data)
{
    //write to xml: - it works version 1.
    XmlNode keyNode = xmlDoc.CreateElement(entry.Key); //open TAB
    keyNode.InnerText = entry.Value;
    body.AppendChild(keyNode); //close TAB

    //Write to xmml verdion 2: (uncomment the next 4 lines and comment the above 3 - version 1
    //XmlElement key = xmlDoc.CreateElement(string.Empty, entry.Key, string.Empty);
    //XmlText value = xmlDoc.CreateTextNode(entry.Value);
    //key.AppendChild(value);
    //body.AppendChild(key);
}

Both versions (1 and 2 inside foreach loop) give the output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<body>
    <level1>
        <level2>text</level2>
        <level2>ther text</level2>
         <same_level2>more text</same_level2>
    </level1>
</body>

(Note: third line "same level2" in dictionary can be also level2 as the others but I wanted to ilustrate the advantage of the dictionary - in my case I needed level2 with different names.

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