Question

I am trying to figure out what the best method is for writing an XML Document. Below is a simple example of what I am trying to create off of data I am pulling from our ERP system. I have read about XMLWriter, but thought I would see if there are any other better methods. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Example XML:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Orders>
  <Order OrderNumber="12345">
    <ItemNumber>0123993587</ItemNumber>
    <QTY>10</QTY>
    <WareHouse>PA019</WareHouse>
  </Order>
  <Order OrderNumber="12346">
    <ItemNumber>0123993587</ItemNumber>
    <QTY>9</QTY>
    <WareHouse>PA019</WareHouse>
  </Order>
  <Order OrderNumber="12347">
    <ItemNumber>0123993587</ItemNumber>
    <QTY>8</QTY>
    <WareHouse>PA019</WareHouse>
  </Order>
</Orders>

Answer 1

Josh’s answer shows how easy it is to create a single element in LINQ to XML… it doesn’t show how it’s also hugely easy to create multiple elements. Suppose you have a List<Order> called orders… you can create the whole document like this:

var xml = new XElement("Orders",
    orders.Select(order =>
        new XElement("Order",
            new XAttribute("OrderNumber", order.OrderNumber),
            new XElement("ItemNumber", order.ItemNumber),
            new XElement("QTY", order.Quantity),
            new XElement("Warehouse", order.Warehouse)
        )
    )
);

LINQ to XML makes constructing XML incredibly easy. It also has support for XML namespaces which is pretty easy too. For instance, if you wanted your elements to be in a particular namespace, you’d just need:

XNamespace ns = "http://your/namespace/here";
var xml = new XElement(ns + "Orders",
    orders.Select(order =>
        new XElement(ns + "Order",
... (rest of code as before)

LINQ to XML is the best XML API I’ve worked with… it’s great for querying too.