private void writeXMLFile(String outFile) throws Exception ... { DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance(); DocumentBuilder db = null; try ...{ db = dbf.newDocumentBuilder(); } catch (ParserConfigurationException pce) ...{ System.err.println(pce); System.exit(1); } Document doc = null; doc = db.newDocument(); Element root = doc.createElement("student"); doc.appendChild(root); XMLOutputter outp = new XMLOutputter(); outp.setOmitEncoding(true); outp.setIndent(true); outp.output(doc.toString(), new FileOutputStream("test.xml")); }