How can I create an empty XmlElementString with XmlWriter

I am trying to dump out a collection of values from an editor I am writing. There are some elements that I need to write out, even though they are empty. Whenever I try something like...

writer.WriteElementString("variable", ""); or writer.WriteElementString("variable", string.Empty);

I get <variable /> instead of <variable></variable>

I tried a WriteStartElement("variable") followed by a WriteEndElement but that gave me...

Does the line separation make any difference to having it all on one line

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How can I create an empty XmlElementString with XmlWriter

b6s

Yes, unfortunately, there are still a lot of non-xml readers trying to parse xml files out there...

Anyway, if you're still struggling with this, here's what worked for me:

XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.Indent = true;
using (XmlWriter tw = XmlTextWriter.Create("c:\\test.xml", filename, settings))
{
    tw.WriteStartDocument();
    tw.WriteStartElement("document");
    tw.WriteString(string.Empty);
    tw.WriteEndElement();
    tw.WriteEndDocument();
}

Andrej
pst_grant
i can see you already have that in the code and it should work

tw.WriteStartElement("variable", String.EMpty);
sic0198
Try something like this

XmlTextWriter tw = new XmlTextWriter(filename, null);

tw.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;

tw.WriteStartDocument();

tw.WriteStartElement(""); // This should make an empty element...
ajay_s

LeeC22 wrote:
I get <variable /> instead of <variable></variable>

Hi, just wondering what's wrong with having "<variable />". It's just the syntax, semantics is the same...

Andrej

bitbonk

Andrej Tozon wrote:

LeeC22 wrote:

I get <variable /> instead of <variable></variable>

Hi, just wondering what's wrong with having "<variable />". It's just the syntax, semantics is the same...

Andrej

It needs the <variable></variable> as the data could potentially get parsed by a non-XML reader so it needs to specify data in a specific way.

SoulSolutions

Hi Harsimrat,

It doesn't need to be totally empty, the variable itself may be empty (or null) but it still needs to generate the "variable" element.

I.e.. <variable></variable>

whereas normally it would be <variable>Value</variable> if there was something in it.
ropley

For what it's worth, this probably is about XmlTextWriter.Create... I replaced it with the new XmlTextWriter() in the above code and got <document />.

Andrej

LSS

Andrej Tozon wrote:

Yes, unfortunately, there are still a lot of non-xml readers trying to parse xml files out there...

Anyway, if you're still struggling with this, here's what worked for me:

XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.Indent = true;
using (XmlWriter tw = XmlTextWriter.Create("c:\\test.xml", filename, settings))
{
tw.WriteStartDocument();
tw.WriteStartElement("document");
tw.WriteString(string.Empty);
tw.WriteEndElement();
tw.WriteEndDocument();
}

Andrej

Strangely, that piece of code works fine, when I incorporate that into my editor, I get the same <variable /> output.

The loop I have is basically this...

foreach (String mapTops in gameLevel.sMapTop)
{
if (mapTops == "")
{
writer.WriteStartElement("mapTop");
writer.WriteString(string.Empty);
writer.WriteEndElement();
}
else
{
writer.WriteElementString("mapTop", mapTops);
}
}

mapTops is an ArrayList()

The only other difference is I don't use the XmlTextWriter.Create method but even when I used that instead of my current method, it still failed...

I might have to leave this on the backburner for now, it's becoming an unnecessary distraction. There's obviously something being written beforehand that is causing this change in output, I just don't know enough about XML to know what it is.

Thanks for the help though guys, much appreciated.

How can I create an empty XmlElementString with XmlWriter

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