Best way to prettify an XmlDocument (.NET)?

Question

Let's say I have a System.Xml.XmlDocument whose InnerXml is:

<comedians><act id="1" type="single" name="Harold Lloyd"/><act id="2" type="duo" name="Laurel and Hardy"><member>Stan Laurel</member><member>Oliver Hardy</member></act></comedians>

I'd like to format it thusly, with newlines and whitespace added:

<comedians>
    <act id="1" type="single" name="Harold Lloyd"/>
    <act id="2" type="duo" name="Laurel and Hardy">
        <member>Stan Laurel</member>
        <member>Oliver Hardy</member>
    </act>
</comedians>

I looked in the XmlDocument class for some prettifying method, but couldn't find one.

Answer 1

Basically you can use XmlDocument.Save(Stream) and pass any Stream as target to recieve the xml content. Including a "memory-only" StringWriter as below:

string xml = "<myXML>";

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(xml);

using(StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
{
    doc.Save(sw);
    Console.Write(sw.GetStringBuilder().ToString());
}

Update: using block

Answer 2

Trying to prettify XML is like putting lipstick on a pig :) It still ain't gonna be pretty.

Why are you trying to prettify it? If it is for editing purposes, Visual Studio does a pretty good job of presenting it in readable form. If it is for a user, then they may prefer to just open up in their preferred editor or explorer.

Answer 3

Jon Galloway posted an answer and deleted it, but it was actually the best option for me. It went somewhat like this:

StringBuilder Prettify(XmlDocument xdoc)
{
    StringBuilder myBuf = new StringBuilder();
    XmlTextWriter myWriter = new XmlTextWriter(new StringWriter(myBuf));
    myWriter.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
    xdoc.Save(myWriter);
    return myBuf;
}

No need to create a XmlWriterSettings object.