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My application generates XML using XmlDocument. Some of the data contains newline and carriage return characters.

When text is assigned to an XmlElement like this:

 e.InnerText = "Hello\nThere";

The resulting XML looks like this:

<e>Hello There</e>

The receiver of the XML (which I have no control over) treats the new-line as white space and sees the above text as:

 "Hello There"

For the receiver to retain the new-line it requires the encoding to be:

<e>Hello&#xA;There</e>

If the data is applied to an XmlAttribute, the new-line is properly encoded.

I've tried applying text to XmlElement using InnerText and InnerXml but the output is the same for both.

Is there a way to get XmlElement text nodes to output new-lines and carriage-returns in their encoded forms?

Here is some sample code to demonstrate the problem:

string s = "return[\r] newline[\n] special[&<>\"']"; XmlDocument d = new XmlDocument(); d.AppendChild( d.CreateXmlDeclaration( "1.0", null, null ) ); XmlElement r = d.CreateElement( "root" ); d.AppendChild( r ); XmlElement e = d.CreateElement( "normal" ); r.AppendChild( e ); XmlAttribute a = d.CreateAttribute( "attribute" ); e.Attributes.Append( a ); a.Value = s; e.InnerText = s; s = s .Replace( "&" , "&amp;" ) .Replace( "<" , "&lt;" ) .Replace( ">" , "&gt;" ) .Replace( "\"", "&quot;" ) .Replace( "'" , "&apos;" ) .Replace( "\r", "&#xD;" ) .Replace( "\n", "&#xA;" ) ; e = d.CreateElement( "encoded" ); r.AppendChild( e ); a = d.CreateAttribute( "attribute" ); e.Attributes.Append( a ); a.InnerXml = s; e.InnerXml = s; d.Save( @"C:\Temp\XmlNewLineHandling.xml" );

The output of this program is:

<?xml version="1.0"?> <root> <normal attribute="return[&#xD;] newline[&#xA;] special[&amp;&lt;&gt;&quot;']">return[ ] newline[ ] special[&amp;&lt;&gt;"']</normal> <encoded attribute="return[&#xD;] newline[&#xA;] special[&amp;&lt;&gt;&quot;']">return[ ] newline[ ] special[&amp;&lt;&gt;"']</encoded> </root>

Thanks in advance. Chris.

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  • What you want is not clear. Please show what you want, and what you are getting Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 2:11
  • Look at the top 4 code lines: what I start with, what I'm getting, what the receiver sees, what I want. Attributes encode newlines the way I want, Elements do not. Commented Jun 26, 2012 at 12:16

4 Answers 4

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1

How about using HttpUtility.HtmlEncode()?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/73z22y6h.aspx

OK, sorry about the wrong lead there. HttpUtility.HtmlEncode() will not handle the newline issue you're facing.

This blog link will help you out, though
http://weblogs.asp.net/mschwarz/archive/2004/02/16/73675.aspx

Basically, the newline handling is controlled by the xml:space="preserve" attribute.

Sample working code:

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument(); doc.LoadXml("<ROOT/>"); doc.DocumentElement.InnerText = "1234\r\n5678"; XmlAttribute e = doc.CreateAttribute( "xml", "space", "http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace"); e.Value = "preserve"; doc.DocumentElement.Attributes.Append(e); var child = doc.CreateElement("CHILD"); child.InnerText = "1234\r\n5678"; doc.DocumentElement.AppendChild(child); Console.WriteLine(doc.InnerXml); Console.ReadLine();

The output will read:

<ROOT xml:space="preserve">1234 5678<CHILD>1234 5678</CHILD></ROOT>
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1 Comment

I've tested this and my receiver does not recognize or process the xml:space attribute. The new-lines definitely have to be encoded as &#xA; or they are converted to white space.
0

Encoding is probably your best bet using the methods described here. Or perhaps you could look at using a CData section for your content instead.

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In my sample code above, there is a simple encoder. The problem is getting XmlElement to preserve the encoded characters. It keeps converting them back to new-line and carriage-return characters.
0

In .net 2.0 use the XmlDocument PreserveWhitespace switch

XmlDocument d = new XmlDocument(); d.PreserveWhitespace = true;
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1 Comment

When I try this it has no effect on the encoding of new-line characters.
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i had the same problem Preserve carriage returns when i write/read from xml file using asp.net

the solution is to replace xml space to html space after html generated i add this 

 strHtml = strHtml.Replace("&lt;br/&gt;", "<br/>");

at the end of the method before closing the stream reader

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