Simplest way to transform XML to HTML with XSLT in C#?

Question

XSLT newbie question: Please fill in the blank in the C# code fragment below:

public static string TransformXMLToHTML(string inputXml, string xsltString) {   // insert code here to apply the transform specified by xsltString to inputXml    // and return the resultant HTML string.   // You may assume that the xslt output type is HTML. } 

Thanks!

Answer 1

How about:

public static string TransformXMLToHTML(string inputXml, string xsltString) {     XslCompiledTransform transform = new XslCompiledTransform();     using(XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(xsltString))) {         transform.Load(reader);     }     StringWriter results = new StringWriter();     using(XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(inputXml))) {         transform.Transform(reader, null, results);     }     return results.ToString(); } 

Note that ideally you would cache and re-use the XslCompiledTransform - or perhaps use XslTransform instead (it is marked as deprecated, though).

Answer 2

Just for fun, a slightly less elegant version that implements the caching suggested by Marc:

    public static string TransformXMLToHTML(string inputXml, string xsltString)     {         XslCompiledTransform transform = GetAndCacheTransform(xsltString);         StringWriter results = new StringWriter();         using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(inputXml)))         {             transform.Transform(reader, null, results);         }         return results.ToString();     }      private static Dictionary<String, XslCompiledTransform> cachedTransforms = new Dictionary<string, XslCompiledTransform>();     private static XslCompiledTransform GetAndCacheTransform(String xslt)     {         XslCompiledTransform transform;         if (!cachedTransforms.TryGetValue(xslt, out transform))         {             transform = new XslCompiledTransform();             using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(xslt)))             {                 transform.Load(reader);             }             cachedTransforms.Add(xslt, transform);         }         return transform;     }