Simplest way to transform XML to HTML with XSLT in C#?

XSLT newbie question: Please fill in the blank in the C# code fragment below:

public static string TransformXMLToHTML(string inputXml, string xsltString) {
  // insert code here to apply the transform specified by xsltString to inputXml 
  // and return the resultant HTML string.
  // You may assume that the xslt output type is HTML.
}

Thanks!

From stackoverflow

• How about:

  public static string TransformXMLToHTML(string inputXml, string xsltString)
  {
      XslCompiledTransform transform = new XslCompiledTransform();
      using(XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(xsltString))) {
          transform.Load(reader);
      }
      StringWriter results = new StringWriter();
      using(XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(inputXml))) {
          transform.Transform(reader, null, results);
      }
      return results.ToString();
  }
  

  Note that ideally you would cache and re-use the XslCompiledTransform - or perhaps use XslTransform instead (it is marked as deprecated, though).

  Dathan : +1: it doesn't get any simpler than this.

  Shaul : Marc, you are a prince among men. :)

• Just for fun, a slightly less elegant version that implements the caching suggested by Marc:

      public static string TransformXMLToHTML(string inputXml, string xsltString)
      {
          XslCompiledTransform transform = GetAndCacheTransform(xsltString);
          StringWriter results = new StringWriter();
          using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(inputXml)))
          {
              transform.Transform(reader, null, results);
          }
          return results.ToString();
      }
  
      private static Dictionary<String, XslCompiledTransform> cachedTransforms = new Dictionary<string, XslCompiledTransform>();
      private static XslCompiledTransform GetAndCacheTransform(String xslt)
      {
          XslCompiledTransform transform;
          if (!cachedTransforms.TryGetValue(xslt, out transform))
          {
              transform = new XslCompiledTransform();
              using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(xslt)))
              {
                  transform.Load(reader);
              }
              cachedTransforms.Add(xslt, transform);
          }
          return transform;
      }
  

  Marc Gravell : You'd have to worry about thread safety / synchronization around the dictionary, but something along those lines, yes.

  Dathan : And it occurs to me that it might be worthwhile to hash the xsltString and use that hash as a key instead. Some transforms can get pretty big - no reason to incur the extra memory penalty storing it in compiled form in the XslCompiledTransform and again as the key.