DataTable to XElement

Question

I am trying to export the contents of a DataTable to XElement via the WriteXml method, and then to include that XElement into a another series of nested XElements. I have tried the following code but I am getting 'Illegal characters in path' exeception. The code I am using is

 

Code Snippet

StringWriter sr = new StringWriter();

DataTable.WriteXml(sr, System.Data.XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema, true);

string contents = sr.ToString();

 

XElement test = XElement.Load(contents);

 

Strangely though if I copy and paste the xml string in contents, save it as an xml file and use the file in the XElement.Load() it loads the xml data in fine!!

 

Any help would be appreciated...

 

Answer 1

Probably you meant to use XElement.Parse() instead of XElement.Load(). You want to parse a string, not load a URL. Give it a try, it will work as expected.

 

Even better, you can avoid the expensive conversion to string by providing an XmlWriter that builds an XDocument straight off the DataTable:

Code Snippet

 XDocument d = new XDocument();
 using (XmlWriter w = d.CreateWriter()) {
   DataTable.WriteXml(w, System.Data.XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema, true);
 }
 Console.WriteLine(d.Root);

 

If you're trying to accumulate the contents of the DataTable into a container XElement, the XmlWriter exposed by XElement is what you need. When XmlWriter.Close() is invoked, the XmlWriter generated content is Add()-ed to the container XElement:

Code Snippet

XElement container = new XElement("container");

using (XmlWriter w = container.CreateWriter()) {

  DataTable.WriteXml(w, System.Data.XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema, true);
 }

Console.WriteLine(container);

 

 

Ion

Answer 2

excellent, many thanks for the reply, works a treat!!