XML读成String

需求：将xml文件内容读成一个字符串

public static String XMLToString(Element xml){
        XMLWriter xmlWriter = null;
        StringWriter out = new StringWriter(1024);
        OutputFormat format = OutputFormat.createPrettyPrint();
        format.setEncoding("UTF-8");
        String ret = null;
        try
        {
            xmlWriter = new XMLWriter(out, format);
            xmlWriter.write(xml);
            ret = out.toString();;
        }
        catch (UnsupportedEncodingException ex)
        {
            log.error("xml encoding error: " + ex);
        }
        catch (IOException ex)
        {
            log.error("xml writing error: " + ex);
        }
        finally {
            if (xmlWriter != null) {
                try {
                    xmlWriter.close();
                } catch (IOException ex) {
                    log.error("error occured when closing XMLWriter: " + ex);
                }
            }
            if (out != null) {
                try {
                    out.close();
                } catch (IOException ex) {
                    log.error("error occured when closing StringWriter: " + ex);
                }
            }

        }
        return ret;
    }