How to pretty print XML from Java?

Question

I have a Java String that contains XML, with no line feeds or indentations. I would like to turn it into a String with nicely formatted XML. How do I do this?

String unformattedXml = "<tag><nested>hello</nested></tag>";
String formattedXml = new [UnknownClass]().format(unformattedXml);

Note: My input is a String. My output is a String.

(Basic) mock result:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
  <tag>
    <nested>hello</nested>
  </tag>
</root>

Answer 1

I've pretty printed in the past using the org.dom4j.io.OutputFormat.createPrettyPrint() method

public String prettyPrint(final String xml){  

    if (StringUtils.isBlank(xml)) {
        throw new RuntimeException("xml was null or blank in prettyPrint()");
    }

    final StringWriter sw;

    try {
        final OutputFormat format = OutputFormat.createPrettyPrint();
        final org.dom4j.Document document = DocumentHelper.parseText(xml);
        sw = new StringWriter();
        final XMLWriter writer = new XMLWriter(sw, format);
        writer.write(document);
    }
    catch (Exception e) {
        throw new RuntimeException("Error pretty printing xml:\n" + xml, e);
    }
    return sw.toString();
}

Answer 2

Using scala:

import xml._
val xml = XML.loadString("<tag><nested>hello</nested></tag>")
val formatted = new PrettyPrinter(150, 2).format(xml)
println(formatted)

You can do this in Java too, if you depend on the scala-library.jar. It looks like this:

import scala.xml.*;

public class FormatXML {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String unformattedXml = "<tag><nested>hello</nested></tag>";
        PrettyPrinter pp = new PrettyPrinter(150, 3);
        String formatted = pp.format(XML.loadString(unformattedXml), TopScope$.MODULE$);
        System.out.println(formatted);
    }
}

The PrettyPrinter object is constructed with two ints, the first being max line length and the second being the indentation step.

Answer 3

This code below working perfectly

import javax.xml.transform.OutputKeys;
import javax.xml.transform.Source;
import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource;

String formattedXml1 = prettyFormat("<root><child>aaa</child><child/></root>");

public static String prettyFormat(String input) {
    return prettyFormat(input, "2");
}

public static String prettyFormat(String input, String indent) {
    Source xmlInput = new StreamSource(new StringReader(input));
    StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();
    try {
        TransformerFactory transformerFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
        Transformer transformer = transformerFactory.newTransformer();
        transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.INDENT, "yes");
        transformer.setOutputProperty("{http://xml.apache.org/xslt}indent-amount", indent);
        transformer.transform(xmlInput, new StreamResult(stringWriter));

        String pretty = stringWriter.toString();
        pretty = pretty.replace("\r\n", "\n");
        return pretty;              
    } catch (Exception e) {
        throw new RuntimeException(e);
    }
}

Answer 4

I mix all of them and writing one small program. It is reading from the xml file and printing out. Just Instead of xzy give your file path.

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
    dbf.setValidating(false);
    DocumentBuilder db = dbf.newDocumentBuilder();
    Document doc = db.parse(new FileInputStream(new File("C:/Users/xyz.xml")));
    prettyPrint(doc);

}

private static String prettyPrint(Document document)
        throws TransformerException {
    TransformerFactory transformerFactory = TransformerFactory
            .newInstance();
    Transformer transformer = transformerFactory.newTransformer();
    transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.INDENT, "yes");
    transformer.setOutputProperty("{http://xml.apache.org/xslt}indent-amount", "2");
    transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.ENCODING, "UTF-8");
    transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.OMIT_XML_DECLARATION, "no");
    DOMSource source = new DOMSource(document);
    StringWriter strWriter = new StringWriter();
    StreamResult result = new StreamResult(strWriter);transformer.transform(source, result);
    System.out.println(strWriter.getBuffer().toString());

    return strWriter.getBuffer().toString();

}

Answer 5

Using jdom2 : http://www.jdom.org/

import java.io.StringReader;
import org.jdom2.input.SAXBuilder;
import org.jdom2.output.Format;
import org.jdom2.output.XMLOutputter;

String prettyXml = new XMLOutputter(Format.getPrettyFormat()).
                         outputString(new SAXBuilder().build(new StringReader(uglyXml)));

Answer 6

For those searching for a quick and dirty solution - which doesn't need the XML to be 100% valid. e.g. in case of REST / SOAP logging (you never know what the others send ;-))

I found and advanced a code snipped I found online which I think is still missing here as a valid possible approach:

public static String prettyPrintXMLAsString(String xmlString) {
    /* Remove new lines */
    final String LINE_BREAK = "\n";
    xmlString = xmlString.replaceAll(LINE_BREAK, "");
    StringBuffer prettyPrintXml = new StringBuffer();
    /* Group the xml tags */
    Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("(<[^/][^>]+>)?([^<]*)(</[^>]+>)?(<[^/][^>]+/>)?");
    Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(xmlString);
    int tabCount = 0;
    while (matcher.find()) {
        String str1 = (null == matcher.group(1) || "null".equals(matcher.group())) ? "" : matcher.group(1);
        String str2 = (null == matcher.group(2) || "null".equals(matcher.group())) ? "" : matcher.group(2);
        String str3 = (null == matcher.group(3) || "null".equals(matcher.group())) ? "" : matcher.group(3);
        String str4 = (null == matcher.group(4) || "null".equals(matcher.group())) ? "" : matcher.group(4);

        if (matcher.group() != null && !matcher.group().trim().equals("")) {
            printTabs(tabCount, prettyPrintXml);
            if (!str1.equals("") && str3.equals("")) {
                ++tabCount;
            }
            if (str1.equals("") && !str3.equals("")) {
                --tabCount;
                prettyPrintXml.deleteCharAt(prettyPrintXml.length() - 1);
            }

            prettyPrintXml.append(str1);
            prettyPrintXml.append(str2);
            prettyPrintXml.append(str3);
            if (!str4.equals("")) {
                prettyPrintXml.append(LINE_BREAK);
                printTabs(tabCount, prettyPrintXml);
                prettyPrintXml.append(str4);
            }
            prettyPrintXml.append(LINE_BREAK);
        }
    }
    return prettyPrintXml.toString();
}

private static void printTabs(int count, StringBuffer stringBuffer) {
    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
        stringBuffer.append("\t");
    }
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String x = new String(
            "<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\"><soap:Body><soap:Fault><faultcode>soap:Client</faultcode><faultstring>INVALID_MESSAGE</faultstring><detail><ns3:XcbSoapFault xmlns=\"\" xmlns:ns3=\"http://www.someapp.eu/xcb/types/xcb/v1\"><CauseCode>20007</CauseCode><CauseText>INVALID_MESSAGE</CauseText><DebugInfo>Problems creating SAAJ object model</DebugInfo></ns3:XcbSoapFault></detail></soap:Fault></soap:Body></soap:Envelope>");
    System.out.println(prettyPrintXMLAsString(x));
}

here is the output:

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <soap:Body>
    <soap:Fault>
        <faultcode>soap:Client</faultcode>
        <faultstring>INVALID_MESSAGE</faultstring>
        <detail>
            <ns3:XcbSoapFault xmlns="" xmlns:ns3="http://www.someapp.eu/xcb/types/xcb/v1">
                <CauseCode>20007</CauseCode>
                <CauseText>INVALID_MESSAGE</CauseText>
                <DebugInfo>Problems creating SAAJ object model</DebugInfo>
            </ns3:XcbSoapFault>
        </detail>
    </soap:Fault>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>