Problem seeing XML declaration on System.Console

Question

Hi,

I have been experimenting with LINQ to XML and have run across a very basic problem. For some reason, I am not seeing a XML declaration when dumping the tree to System.Console.

using System;
using System.Xml.Linq;

...

public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    // Build tree.
    XDocument xd = new XDocument(new XDeclaration("1.0", "utf-8", "yes"));

    // Output tree.
    System.Console.WriteLine(xd);

    // Pause.
    System.Console.ReadLine();
}

Can someone explain what basic thing I'm doing wrong ?

Thanks,

Scott

Answer 1

You document is empty, so you'll just see a newline (which will look blank).

Try adding something to the XML document. This will print out a value XML doc:

// Build tree. 
XDocument xd = new XDocument(new XDeclaration("1.0", "utf-8", "yes"));
xd.AddFirst(new XElement("root"));

// Output tree. 
System.Console.WriteLine(xd);

Answer 2

Add some real data to the XDoc. And be sure to use the Save() method to see the entire content:

  XDocument xd = new XDocument(new XDeclaration("1.0", "utf-8", "yes"));
  xd.Add(new XElement("top"));
  xd.Save(Console.Out);