Read a file compile-time in C#

I am writing some unit tests in which I need a fake xml file. I can create that file and require it to be deployed with the unit tests, but experience shows that at my office it's a lot of headache. So I decided that the file will be created by UT's.

StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(testFileName);
sw.Write(contents);
sw.Close();

Now the problem is the contents string. It is virtually a long xml, something like this:

string contents = 
@"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1251"?>
  <blah>
  ~100 lines here
  </blah> ";

I don't want this to be in the same file as the rest of the cod开发者_如何学Ce. I want the string to be generated compile-time from a file.

In C++, I'd do this

string contents = "
#include "test.xml"
   ";

Is it possible somehow in C#?

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Why don't you include it in a resource?

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Use a resources (resx file) and add your xml file. Then you can access using MyNs.MyResources.MyXmlFile.

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I usually add such test files directly into the unit test C# project and set them as "Content" and "Copy if newer" to be copied to the bin directory during the compilation.

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If the contents are static, why can't you commit it to source control? Add it to your project and then it will always be exactly where you expect it to be.

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You can go the resource file route but, depending on how many resources/how large they are (and XML can be large), you may eventually run into compilation problems (I did).

I've since transitioned from resources to singletons. Reading a text file in with File.ReadAllText is pretty dead simple and it's still IntelliSense-friendly.

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You can do this with a T4 template. What you need is 3 things

1. Create your template file, which will generate your .cs code
2. Include your text file (or *.sql file) in the same project as your template file
3. Configure your template to re-create your t4 template on every build

Something like this for your template.tt file

<#@ template debug="true" hostSpecific="true" #>
<#@ output extension=".cs" #>
<#@ Assembly Name="System.Core" #>
<#@ Assembly Name="System.Windows.Forms" #>
<#@ import namespace="System" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.IO" #>
<#
   string TextFromFile = File.ReadAllText(Host.ResolvePath("my_file_next_to_my_template.txt"));
#>
// This is the output code from your template
namespace MyNameSpace
{
    class MyGeneratedClass
    {
        static void main (string[] args)
        {
            System.Console.WriteLine("<#= TextFromFile #>");
        }
    }
}

If you don't want to configure your template to be re-created on the build then just opening it and saving it will do the trick.