>>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.
>
>What's in GetColumnValue() - that's likely to be the slow bit ?
>
>Since the column names are fixed you might be able to cache those and avoid using 'sqlDataReader.GetName(i);' repeatedly.
>
>I assume that the required output format precludes using DataSet.WriteXML


In addition to caching the column names, you can do it with one StringBuilder instead of two - would need an Insert()