C#: XmlTextWriter.WriteElementString fails on empty strings?

Question

I\'m using XmlTextWriter and its WriteElementString method, for example:

XmlTextWriter writer = new XmlTextWriter(\"filename.xml\",         


        

Answer 1

Your output is correct. An element with no content should be written as .

You can force the use of the full tag by calling WriteFullEndElement()

writer.WriteStartElement("Email");
writer.WriteString(inputEmail);
writer.WriteFullEndElement();

That will output when inputEmail is empty.

If you want to do that more than once, you could create an extension method:

public static void WriteFullElementString(this XmlTextWriter writer,
                                          string localName, 
                                          string value)
{
    writer.WriteStartElement(localName);
    writer.WriteString(value);
    writer.WriteFullEndElement();
}

Then your code would become:

writer.WriteStartElement("User");
writer.WriteFullElementString("Username", inputUserName);
writer.WriteFullElementString("Email", inputEmail);
writer.WriteEndElement();