XML Building in C# Windows or ASP Application

Question

I am passing lot of XML Parameters from my application to the SQL Server (both windows and ASP.Net application)

Earlier i used to build XML using the based concatenation operator in string, similar to the one below.

string XmlDetails = string.Empty;
XmlDetails = "<APPLICATION><SEND>";
XmlDetails += "<ID>" + txtCardNo.Text.ToString() + "</ID>";
XmlDetails += "</SEND></APPLICATION>";

The application really used to hog memory and was really slow. I changes the concatenation method to String Builder class to build big XML.

 XmlDetails = string.Format("{0}<{1}>{2}</{1}>", "<APPLICATION><SEND>", "ID", txtCardNo.Text.ToString()); 
 XmlDetails = string.Format("{0}<{1}>{2}</{1}>{3}", XmlDetails, "PAYDET", txtPOSPaydet.Text.ToString(), "</SEND></APPLICATION>");

While using the above method there was a drastic change in the memory levels used by my application.

I would like to know if there are any better methods which could be employed in my application.

Answer 1

There are several options available to you:

XElement, which allows you to handcraft your XML without having to build the string itself, but rather like so:

XElement xmlTree1 = new XElement("Root",
    new XElement("Child1", 1),
    new XElement("Child2", 2),
    new XElement("Child3", 3)
);

Console.WriteLine(xmlTree2);

This will write to the console:

<Root>
  <Child1>1</Child1>
  <Child2>2</Child2>
  <Child3>3</Child3>
</Root>

If your XML format is static, you can also create an object representing your data, mark it as [Serializable], then serialize it:

public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var myObjectToSerialize = new Root()
    {
        Child1 = 1,
        Child2 = 2,
        Child3 = 3
    };

    var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Root));
    serializer.Serialize(Console.Out, myObjectToSerialize);
    Console.ReadKey();
}

With the following class:

[Serializable]
public class Root
{
    public int Child1 { get; set; }

    public int Child2 { get; set; }

    public int Child3 { get; set; }
}