>>>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()

Yeah, thought of that. It's only there to put the record count at the top