Writing a DataSet as XML Data 

In ADO.NET you can write an XML representation of a DataSet, with or without its schema. If schema information is included inline with the XML, it is written using the XML Schema definition language (XSD). The schema contains the table definitions of the DataSet as well as the relation and constraint definitions.

When a DataSet is written as XML data, the rows in the DataSet are written in their current versions. However, the DataSet can also be written as a DiffGram so that both the current and the original values of the rows will be included.

The XML representation of the DataSet can be written to a file, a stream, an XmlWriter, or a string. These choices provide great flexibility for how you transport the XML representation of the DataSet. To obtain the XML representation of the DataSet as a string, use the GetXml method as shown in the following example.

Dim xmlDS As String = custDS.GetXml()

string xmlDS = custDS.GetXml();

GetXml returns the XML representation of the DataSet without schema information. To write the schema information from the DataSet (as XML Schema) to a string, use GetXmlSchema.

To write a DataSet to a file, stream, or XmlWriter, use the WriteXml method. The first parameter you pass to WriteXml is the destination of the XML output. For example, pass a string containing a file name, a System.IO.TextWriter object, and so on. You can pass an optional second parameter of an XmlWriteMode to specify how the XML output is to be written.

The following table shows the options for XmlWriteMode.

When writing an XML representation of a DataSet that contains DataRelation objects, you will most likely want the resulting XML to have the child rows of each relation nested within their related parent elements. To accomplish this, set the Nested property of the DataRelation to true when you add the DataRelation to the DataSet. For more information, see Nested DataRelations.

Following are two examples of how to write the XML representation of a DataSet to a file. The first example passes the file name for the resulting XML as a string to WriteXml. The second example passes a System.IO.StreamWriter object.

custDS.WriteXml("Customers.xml", XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema)

custDS.WriteXml("Customers.xml", XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema);

Dim xmlSW As System.IO.StreamWriter = New System.IO.StreamWriter("Customers.xml")
custDS.WriteXml(xmlSW, XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema)
xmlSW.Close()

System.IO.StreamWriter xmlSW = new System.IO.StreamWriter("Customers.xml");
custDS.WriteXml(xmlSW, XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema);
xmlSW.Close();

Mapping Columns to XML Elements, Attributes, and Text

You can specify how a column of a table is represented in XML using the ColumnMapping property of the DataColumn object. The following table shows the different MappingType values for the ColumnMapping property of a table column, and the resulting XML.

<ColumnName>Column Contents</ColumnName>

<RowElement ColumnName="Column Contents" />

<RowElement>Column Contents</RowElement>

See Also

Concepts

DiffGrams
Nested DataRelations
Writing DataSet Schema Information as XML Schema (XSD)

Other Resources

Using XML in a DataSet
Using DataSets in ADO.NET