XmlTextWriter.Formatting Property

Note
In the .NET Framework version 2.0 release, the recommended practice is to create XmlWriter instances using the XmlWriter.Create method and the XmlWriterSettings class. This allows you to take full advantage of all the new features introduced in this release. For more information, see Creating XML Writers.

If the Indented option is set, child elements are indented using the Indentation and IndentChar properties. Only element content is indented. The following C# code writes out HTML elements including mixed content:

 XmlTextWriter w = new XmlTextWriter(Console.Out); 
  w.Formatting = Formatting.Indented; 
  w.WriteStartElement("ol"); 
  w.WriteStartElement("li"); 
  w.WriteString("The big "); // This means "li" now has a mixed content model.
  w.WriteElementString("b", "E"); 
  w.WriteElementString("i", "lephant"); 
  w.WriteString(" walks slowly."); 
  w.WriteEndElement(); 
  w.WriteEndElement();

The above code produces the following output:

 <ol> 
   <li>The big <b>E</b><i>lephant</i> walks slowly.</li> 
 </ol>

When this is viewed in HTML no white space appears between the bold and italic elements. In fact, in this example, if indenting was added between these elements the word "Elephant" would be incorrectly broken.

Note

Writing any text content, excluding String.Empty puts that element into mixed content mode. Child elements do not inherit this "mixed" mode status. A child element of a "mixed" element does indenting, unless it is also contains "mixed" content. Element content (http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210#sec-element-content) and mixed content (http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210#sec-mixed-content) are defined according to the XML 1.0 definitions of these terms.

The following example writes an XML fragment.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;

public class Sample
{

  public static void Main()
  {
     //Create a writer to write XML to the console.
     XmlTextWriter writer = null;
     writer = new XmlTextWriter (Console.Out);

     //Use indentation for readability.
     writer.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
     writer.Indentation = 4;

     //Write an element (this one is the root).
     writer.WriteStartElement("book");

     //Write the title element.
     writer.WriteStartElement("title");
     writer.WriteString("Pride And Prejudice");
     writer.WriteEndElement();

     //Write the close tag for the root element.
     writer.WriteEndElement();

     //Write the XML to file and close the writer.
     writer.Close();  

  }

}

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference