Question

In C# how do you write a DataSet to file without it being written with pretty print?

Using C# and .NET 2.0, I’ve been using dataSet.WriteXml(fileName, XmlWriteMode.IgnoreSchema), which by default is writing the Xml file with pretty print. The company consuming the Xml files I write suggested that writing without the pretty print will not affect them, and will significantly decrease the size of the files. With a little playing around in the System.Xml namespace, I did find a solution. However, in my searching I did not find the answer anywhere, so I thought it might be helpful to someone else in the future if I posted the question. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there’s a better or at least different way of accomplishing this.

For those that don’t know (I didn’t until today), Xml ‘pretty print’ is:

<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?> <NewDataSet>   <Foo>     <Bar>abc</Bar>   </Foo> </NewDataSet> 

Without pretty print it looks like this:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?><NewDataSet><Foo><Bar>abc</Bar></Foo></NewDataSet> 

Additionally, the size savings was significant, 70mb files are becoming about 40mb. I’ll post my solution later today if no one else has.

Answer 1

It’s pretty simple, you just have to create an XmlWriter using an XmlWriterSettings which has the Indent property set to false:

// The memory stream for the backing. using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream()) {   // The settings for the XmlWriter.   XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();    // Do not indent.   settings.Indent = false;    // Create the XmlWriter.   using (XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(ms, settings))   {      // Write the data set to the writer.      dataSet.WriteXml(xmlWriter);   } }