.net Xml comparer for UnitTesting

Question

I have a few unit tests where I need to make sure that XML generated by a method contains the same elements/values as an expected Xml document.

I used xmlunit in Java, and although they have a .net version it doesn't seem to support namespaces. Are there any alternatives within .net for doing this?

As long as I can just compare 2 Xml strings and get a true/false result to tell me if they match as far as the data contained is concerned I am happy...

Are you wanting to compare the namespaces as well, or just the nodes contained in the XML — Duncan Howe, May 05 '11 at 12:19

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered May 05 '11 at 12:33

7

I've usually found that XNode.DeepEquals is sufficient for my needs. It's part of the BCL, so no download is required.

answered May 05 '11 at 12:33

Mark Seemann

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score 3 · Answer 2 · answered May 05 '11 at 12:19

Try Microsoft.XmlDiffPatch:

static public bool IsXmlEqual( XmlReader x1, XmlReader x2,
    bool IgnoreChildOrder, bool IgnoreComments, bool IgnorePI, bool IgnoreWhitespace,
    bool IgnoreNamespaces, bool IgnorePrefixes, bool IgnoreXmlDecl, bool IgnoreDtd
)
{
    XmlDiffOptions options = XmlDiffOptions.None;
    if (IgnoreChildOrder) options |= XmlDiffOptions.IgnoreChildOrder;
    if (IgnoreComments) options |= XmlDiffOptions.IgnoreComments;
    if (IgnorePI) options |= XmlDiffOptions.IgnorePI;
    if (IgnoreWhitespace) options |= XmlDiffOptions.IgnoreWhitespace;
    if (IgnoreNamespaces) options |= XmlDiffOptions.IgnoreNamespaces;
    if (IgnorePrefixes) options |= XmlDiffOptions.IgnorePrefixes;
    if (IgnoreXmlDecl) options |= XmlDiffOptions.IgnoreXmlDecl;
    if (IgnoreDtd) options |= XmlDiffOptions.IgnoreDtd;

    XmlDiff xmlDiff = new XmlDiff(options);
    bool bequal = xmlDiff.Compare(x1, x2, null);
    return bequal;
}

+1 for MS Xml Diff Patch. Is there a better download link than http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa302294? — Zach Bonham, May 05 '11 at 12:25
I think that's it. It's a pretty old library (but so is XML). It works like a charm. — Nestor, May 05 '11 at 12:29
You can also download the MS XMLDiffPatch through the NuGet package manager in Visual Studio. — M. Haché, Jul 26 '16 at 18:11

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 07 '12 at 10:32

Something to keep in mind about MSXML XMLDiff is that if you are comparing very large XML documents be sure your XMLDiff.Algorithm is not set to "Precise" or you will potentially run out of memory. By default its set to Auto which is a safe choice as the API will choose whether to use Precise or Fast based on the file size, number of detected differences and other factors. Here is a good read for the more technically inclined:

http://treepatch.sourceforge.net/report.pdf

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 05 '11 at 13:12

0

I have used MS's XMLDiff is the past, but preferred to use Beyond Compare 3's as it has better GUI and batch processing feature (doenst have .NET API though).

for your testing, use XNode.DeepEquals or InnerXML to compare string based representation

answered May 05 '11 at 13:12

Bek Raupov

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.net Xml comparer for UnitTesting

4 Answers4