Formatting of XML created by DataContractSerializer

Eric Anastas picture Eric Anastas · Apr 11, 2009 · Viewed 30.3k times · Source

Is there an easy way to get DataContractSerializer to spit out formatted XML rather then one long string? I don't want to change the tags or content in any way, just have it add line breaks and indentation to make the XML more readable?

<tagA>
   <tagB>This is</tagB>   
   <tagC>Much</tagC>
   <tagD>
      <tagE>easier to read</tagE>
   </tagD>
</tagA>


<tagA><tagB>This is</tagB><tagC>Much</tagC><tagD><tagE>harder to read</tagE></tagD></tagA>

Answer

Steve Willcock picture Steve Willcock · Apr 11, 2009

As bendewey says, XmlWriterSettings is what you need - e.g. something like

var ds = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Foo));

var settings = new XmlWriterSettings { Indent = true };

using (var w = XmlWriter.Create("fooOutput.xml", settings))
    ds.WriteObject(w, someFoos);