Should I use XML to store configuration settings in my C#.Net application?

Question

My question relates to the performance implications of reading application configuration data from an XML file.

I am building an application that lists information from a database and needs to know how to display the lists, depending on the types of data returned.

This is difficult to explain, but basically I would like to have an XML config file that lists the types and describes how to display them. This will allow me to change the display methods without re-compiling the application.

My question is really around performance. Given that my application will need to use this data many times during each page load...

• Should I be reading directly from the XML file and parse it each time I need it?
• Or should I cache the XML object and parse it each time I need it?
• Or should I parse the XML once, generate some sort of object and cache that object?

My guess is option 3, but I'm basically fishing for best practice around this.

Thanks.

Answer 1

There is already a convention for this, called the App.config file.

It is XML, and Visual Studio has tooling support for it.

My suggestion is: Don't reinvent the wheel, if you can help it.

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Now, given that your format is too complex for that, you probably want to go with option 3, but load it lazily.