Using XSLT to Transform an XML Tree

You can create an XML tree, create an XmlReader from the XML tree, create a new document, and create an XmlWriter that will write into the new document. Then, you can invoke the XSLT transformation, passing the XmlReader and XmlWriter to the transformation. After the transformation successfully completes, the new XML tree is populated with the results of the transform.

Example

string xslMarkup = @"<?xml version='1.0'?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform' version='1.0'>
    <xsl:template match='/Parent'>
        <Root>
            <C1>
            <xsl:value-of select='Child1'/>
            </C1>
            <C2>
            <xsl:value-of select='Child2'/>
            </C2>
        </Root>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>";

XDocument xmlTree = new XDocument(
    new XElement("Parent",
        new XElement("Child1", "Child1 data"),
        new XElement("Child2", "Child2 data")
    )
);

XDocument newTree = new XDocument();
using (XmlWriter writer = newTree.CreateWriter()) {
    // Load the style sheet.
    XslCompiledTransform xslt = new XslCompiledTransform();
    xslt.Load(XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(xslMarkup)));

    // Execute the transform and output the results to a writer.
    xslt.Transform(xmlTree.CreateReader(), writer);
}

Console.WriteLine(newTree);

Dim xslMarkup As XDocument = _ 
    <?xml version='1.0'?>
    <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform' version='1.0'>
        <xsl:template match='/Parent'>
            <Root>
                <C1>
                    <xsl:value-of select='Child1'/>
                </C1>
                <C2>
                    <xsl:value-of select='Child2'/>
                </C2>
            </Root>
        </xsl:template>
    </xsl:stylesheet>

Dim xmlTree As XElement = _ 
    <Parent>
        <Child1>Child1 data</Child1>
        <Child2>Child2 data</Child2>
    </Parent>

Dim newTree As XDocument = New XDocument()

Using writer As XmlWriter = newTree.CreateWriter()
    ' Load the style sheet.
    Dim xslt As XslCompiledTransform = _
        New XslCompiledTransform()
    xslt.Load(xslMarkup.CreateReader())

    ' Execute the transform and output the results to a writer.
    xslt.Transform(xmlTree.CreateReader(), writer)
End Using

Console.WriteLine(newTree)

This example produces the following output:

<Root>
  <C1>Child1 data</C1>
  <C2>Child2 data</C2>
</Root>

See Also

Concepts

Advanced LINQ to XML Programming

Reference

XContainer.CreateWriter

XNode.CreateReader