How to get XML with header (<?xml version="1.0"...)?

c# .net xml xmldocument
ispiro picture ispiro · Feb 12, 2013 · Viewed 59.9k times · Source

Consider the following simple code which creates an XML document and displays it.

XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
XmlElement root = xml.CreateElement("root");
xml.AppendChild(root);
XmlComment comment = xml.CreateComment("Comment");
root.AppendChild(comment);
textBox1.Text = xml.OuterXml;

it displays, as expected:

<root><!--Comment--></root>

It doesn't, however, display the 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

So how can I get that as well?

Answer

Sergey Brunov picture Sergey Brunov · Feb 12, 2013

Create an XML-declaration using XmlDocument.CreateXmlDeclaration Method:

XmlNode docNode = xml.CreateXmlDeclaration("1.0", "UTF-8", null);
xml.AppendChild(docNode);

Note: please take a look at the documentation for the method, especially for encoding parameter: there are special requirements for values of this parameter.

Related questions

Read XML Attribute using XmlDocument

How can I read an XML attribute using C#'s XmlDocument? I have an XML file which looks somewhat like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <MyConfiguration xmlns="http://tempuri.org/myOwnSchema.xsd" SuperNumber="1" SuperString="whipcream"> <…

Read More
How would you compare two XML Documents?

As part of the base class for some extensive unit testing, I am writing a helper function which recursively compares the nodes of one XmlDocument object to another in C# (.NET). Some requirements of this: The first document is the …

Read More
How to prevent blank xmlns attributes in output from .NET's XmlDocument?

When generating XML from XmlDocument in .NET, a blank xmlns attribute appears the first time an element without an associated namespace is inserted; how can this be prevented? Example: XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument(); xml.AppendChild(xml.CreateElement("root", "whatever:name-space-1.0")); …

Read More