Format XElement object

Question

How can I format the contents of an XElement object?

I know that the output string is automatically formatted when calling .ToString(), but I want to add the whitespace nodes before converting the objects to string.

The intention is to format XML nodes in the model that is generated by the Microsoft.VisualStudio.XmlEditor classes.

What do you call *whitespace nodes*? – Michal Klouda Mar 25 '16 at 14:12 — Michal Klouda, Mar 25 '16 at 14:12
XText objects with whitespace as content. – TWT Mar 30 '16 at 10:14 — TWT, Mar 30 '16 at 10:14

Alexey Obukhov · Answer 1 · 2016-03-30T15:30:16.087

2

Add text as child element (stored as XText):

   string xml = "<a><b>b</b></a>";
   XElement xdoc = XElement.Parse(xml);
   var b = xdoc.Element("b");
   b.AddBeforeSelf("  ");
   b.AddAfterSelf(new XText("   "));
   b.Add("  ");
   b.AddFirst("  ");
   Console.WriteLine(xdoc.ToString(SaveOptions.DisableFormatting));

Example of universal formating (any xml):

   string xml = "<a><b a=\"a\"><c><d>d</d></c></b><b a=\"a\"><c><d>d</d></c></b><e b=\"b\" a=\"a\"><f>f</f></e></a>";
   XElement xdoc = XElement.Parse(xml);
   Format(xdoc, 0);
   Console.WriteLine(xdoc.ToString(SaveOptions.DisableFormatting));

    static void Format(XElement x, int level)
    {
        foreach (var x1 in x.Elements())
            Format(x1, level + 1);
        if (level > 0)
        {
            x.AddBeforeSelf(Environment.NewLine + new string(' ', 2 * level));
            if (x.Parent.LastNode == x)
            {
                string ending = Environment.NewLine;
                if (level > 1)
                    ending += new string(' ', 2 * (level - 1));
                x.AddAfterSelf(ending);
            }
        }
    }

edited Mar 30 '16 at 15:30

answered Mar 25 '16 at 14:40

Alexey Obukhov

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I want to add the whitespace in the XElement objects itself, instead of the string output. – TWT Mar 25 '16 at 14:41
xelement does not store whitespaces. it is not a string. it stores content of tag (inside <>...>), content of attributes, but not a content before or after <>. please, do not give negative reputation. thanks ) – Alexey Obukhov Mar 25 '16 at 14:46
just press F12 on xelement and look declaration. It has Name, Value properties, Attributes() method. There is no Whitespace property. – Alexey Obukhov Mar 25 '16 at 14:51
I know, but an XElement can have XText children objects, with whitespace as content. – TWT Mar 30 '16 at 10:14
you are right. xelement can has any xnode in children elements. updated answer. – Alexey Obukhov Mar 30 '16 at 10:52
Thanks for the update. But how can an XElement be formatted when it doesn't have fixed child content? – TWT Mar 30 '16 at 14:41
added formating function to example. writes newlines and spaces to each xelement. analog of xdoc.ToString(SaveOptions.None) – Alexey Obukhov Mar 30 '16 at 15:31

Format XElement object

1 Answers1