.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...

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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;
}