Question

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Alternative ways to convert data table to customized XML

DataTable dt = new DataTable();
dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Product_ID", Type.GetType("System.String")));
dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Product_Name", Type.GetType("System.String")));
dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("product_Price", Type.GetType("System.Int32")));
fillRows("hello1", dt, "product1", 1111);
fillRows("hello2", dt, "product2", 2222);
fillRows("hello3", dt, "product3", 3333);
fillRows("hello4", dt, "product4", 4444);


var xmlColumnZero = dt.AsEnumerable().Select(col => col[0].ToString()).ToArray() ; // row 0 turnovermultiplieer
var xmlRowZero = dt.Columns;
string firstColumnHeader = dt.Columns[0].ToString();
// XmlDocument xmldoc = new XmlDocument();
XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create("employees.xml");
writer.WriteStartDocument();
writer.WriteStartElement("Employees");

// XmlElement first = xmldoc.CreateElement("Order");
//xmldoc.AppendChild(first);
foreach (DataColumn dc  in dt.Columns ) 
{

    if (dc.ToString() == firstColumnHeader) continue;
    string firstcol = dc.ToString();
    writer.WriteStartElement(firstcol);
    // XmlElement colRoot = xmldoc.CreateElement(firstcol);
    //first.AppendChild(colRoot);
    for (int i = 0 ; i <dt.Rows.Count && i< xmlColumnZero.Length ; i++)
    {
        string firstrow = xmlColumnZero[i];
        string dtagaga = dt.Rows[i][dc].ToString();
        writer.WriteElementString(firstrow, dtagaga);
       // XmlElement rowRoot = xmldoc.CreateElement(firstrow, dtagaga);
        //colRoot.AppendChild(rowRoot);


    }
    writer.WriteEndElement();
}
writer.WriteEndElement();
writer.WriteEndDocument();

I want the XMl to be stored into a string while i am creating XMLWriter.

Is there another way i can create xml out of the table

XML should look like

The xml writer method stores everything into an xml file in the program location. Would prefer a string to be saved

<Employees>
<Product_Name>
<hello1>product1</hello1>
hello2>product2</hello2>
hello3>product3</hello3>
hello4>product4</hello4>
</product_name>
<product_Price>
<hello1>1111</hello1>
hello2>2222</hello2>
hello3>3333</hello3>
hello4>4444</hello4>
</product_Price>
</Employees>

Answer 1

Just use overloaded method XmlWriter.Create(StringBuilder output) to create xml string. In this case all output will be written to StringBuilder instead of file:

StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(builder);
//... build xml here

string xml = builder.ToString();

Also you can write xml to MemoryStream with XmlWriter.Create(Stream output).

Stream stream = new MemoryStream();
XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(stream);
// ... build xml here

stream.Position = 0;
string xml = new StreamReader(stream).ReadToEnd();

UPDATE

Extension method below will generate your xml string. By default it uses first column as element names, but you can pass any column index for column with meta data. Also I use table name to generate “Employees” tag, so provide name when you create data table DataTable dt = new DataTable("Employees");.

public static string ToXml(this DataTable table, int metaIndex = 0)
{
    XDocument xdoc = new XDocument(
        new XElement(table.TableName,
            from column in table.Columns.Cast<DataColumn>()
            where column != table.Columns[metaIndex]
            select new XElement(column.ColumnName,
                from row in table.AsEnumerable()
                select new XElement(row.Field<string>(metaIndex), row[column])
                )
            )
        );

    return xdoc.ToString();
}

Usage is very simple:

string xml = dt.ToXml();

Output:

<Employees>
  <Product_Name>
    <hello1>product1</hello1>
    <hello2>product2</hello2>
    <hello3>product3</hello3>
    <hello4>product4</hello4>
  </Product_Name>
  <product_Price>
    <hello1>111</hello1>
    <hello2>222</hello2>
    <hello3>333</hello3>
    <hello4>444</hello4>
  </product_Price>
</Employees>