XmlReader

This opens and parses XML files. It handles attribute values, text nodes and multiple tag names. It provides a lower-level abstraction over the XML file structure.

This type provides a forward-only parsing object for the underlying XML files. You must manage the position in the file logically as the parser can only go forward.

Example

You can use certain methods, such as IsStartElement and the Name property, to detect the location in the file and then execute conditional logic based on this location.

using System;
using System.Xml;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Create an XML reader for this file.
        using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create("perls.xml"))
        {
            while (reader.Read())
            {
                // Only detect start elements.
                if (reader.IsStartElement())
                {
                    // Get element name and switch on it.
                    switch (reader.Name)
                    {
                        case "perls":
                            // Detect this element.
                            Console.WriteLine("Start <perls> element.");
                            break;
                        case "article":
                            // Detect this article element.
                            Console.WriteLine("Start <article> element.");
                            // Search for the attribute name on this current node.
                            string attribute = reader["name"];
                            if (attribute != null)
                            {
                                Console.WriteLine("  Has attribute name: " + attribute);
                            }
                            // Next read will contain text.
                            if (reader.Read())
                            {
                                Console.WriteLine("  Text node: " + reader.Value.Trim());
                            }
                            break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<perls>
    <article name="backgroundworker">
        Example text.
    </article>
    <article name="threadpool">
        More text.
    </article>
    <article></article>
    <article>Final text.</article>
</perls>
Start <perls> element.
Start <article> element.
  Has attribute name: backgroundworker
  Text node: Example text.
Start <article> element.
  Has attribute name: threadpool
  Text node: More text.
Start <article> element.
  Text node:
Start <article> element.
  Text node: Final text.

A discussion

Unfortunately, the XmlReader will introduce complexity into the parsing code in your program, due to its nature as a forward-only parser.

Summary

We used the XmlReader type. This class can be used to implement higher-level parsing code, while retaining top performance and low memory usage.