Dom element to string

Question

I have a method, the argument being passed in is a dom element.
The method will convert the element(and child node) to string. The string is then passed into a buffer writer to write to a file.
What is the easiest/fastest way to convert the dom element to string?
Is there a better way to write the element to a file?
Any sample code available?

Answer 1

You could try something like this:
    String elementToString(Element element)
    throws Exception
        StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
        TransformerFactory tFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
        Transformer transformer = tFactory.newTransformer();
        transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.INDENT, "yes");
        transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.METHOD, "xml");
        transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.OMIT_XML_DECLARATION, "yes");
        DOMSource source = new DOMSource(element);
        StreamResult result = new StreamResult(sw);
        transformer.transform(source, result);
        return sw.toString();
    }Regards