Formatting with System.XML

Question

I am redoing a legacy VB.Net app in MVC. Part of the app used MSXML2 to create an XML document. I am having trouble with two elements so far. The legacy code uses "Right" (Right Function in C#?) and "Format" (Equivalent of Format of VB in C#) commands.

Is there a preferred method for creating the XML other than using System.XML?

objNode = objDoc.CreateNode("element", "Payout", "");
objElement = objDoc.DocumentElement.AppendChild(objNode);
objElement.SetAttribute("companyNumber", Right(objRs.Fields["operating_unit_code"].Value, 3));
objElement.SetAttribute("employeeNumber", objRs.Fields["employee_code"].Value);
objElement.SetAttribute("earningsCode", objRs.Fields["incentive_type_code"].Value);
objElement.SetAttribute("chargeToProject", Right(objRs.Fields["operating_unit_code"].Value, 3) & objRs.Fields["organization_code"].Value);
objElement.SetAttribute("amount", Format(objRs.Fields["sum_calc_amount"].Value, "#.00"));
objElement.SetAttribute("weekEndingDate", Format(objRs.Fields["pay_period_end_date"].Value, "MM/DD/YYYY"));
objElement.SetAttribute("employeeName", objRs.Fields["full_name"].Value);

Please check out my edit. If it is not inline with your intention - please make sure it is clear what you do know and what you need help with and update question correspondingly. — Alexei Levenkov, Apr 15 '15 at 00:16
I was getting ready to suggest XML Literals, but then realized you're going from vb.net to C#. Still would suggest `XDocument` and/or `XElement`. What do you want your XML output to look like? — CoderDennis, Apr 15 '15 at 01:29
@CoderDennis - A standard XML document. Not sure whether to use StringBuilder to create it though. — Kevin Schultz, Apr 15 '15 at 14:18
Don't use StringBuilder for XML. Use XDocument as suggested in the answer. — CoderDennis, Apr 15 '15 at 15:03

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

XDocument and Linq to XML is very popular way of creating XML. XDocument or XmlDocument contains a good reasons for one or another.

If you are porting VB.Net code it already using XmlDocument (or other implementation of XML DOM API) it is likely easier to keep using it to minimize changes. You may even get away with simply decompiling that assembly or particular methods into C# code (i.e. using ILSpy or R#).

Note: MSXML2 (or any other version) is not supported in managed applications, so using it is not really an option.

Formatting with System.XML

1 Answers1