Hi everybody,

I am reading some code

// With SqlDataReader, you don't know how many records their are unless you count them.
            recordCount = 0;
            try
            {
                // StringBuilder for the entire return string and one for the records
                StringBuilder returnValue = new StringBuilder();
                StringBuilder recordValues = new StringBuilder();

                // Add the type and the Table start tags
                returnValue.Append("<XML>");
                returnValue.Append("<Table>");

                // Loop through the records and get the column names, values, and record count
                while (sqlDataReader.Read())
                {
                    // There is no sqlDataReader.RecordCount property - we need to increment a counter to figure it out
                    recordCount++;

                    // Add the Record tag
                    recordValues.Append("<Record>");

                    // Loop through the columns and get the name and value
                    for (Int32 i = 0; i < sqlDataReader.FieldCount; i++)
                    {
                        // Store the appropriate format of the column name based on return type
                        String columnName = sqlDataReader.GetName(i);

                        // Get the column value based on the column type
                        String columnValue = GetColumnValue(sqlDataReader, i, true);

                        // Set the string for the record in the appropriate format (removing any empty values from the return)
                        recordValues.AppendFormat("<{0}>{1}</{0}>", columnName, columnValue);
                    }

                    // The end Record tag
                    recordValues.Append("</Record>");
                }

                // Add the record count for the XML return type
                returnValue.AppendFormat("<{0}>{1}</{0}>", "RecCount", recordCount);

                // Append all of the record values (already formatted)
                returnValue.Append(recordValues);
                returnValue.Append("</Table>");
                returnValue.Append("</XML>");

                // Return the whole string...
                return returnValue.ToString();

I am thinking there may be a way to write the above more efficiently with a fewer lines of code.

Do you think it's possible or the above is as good as it gets?

Thanks in advance.