Dataset.ReadXml() - Invalid character in the given encoding

Question

Hello all

I have saved a dataset in the sql database in an xml column using the following code.

XmlDataDocument dd = new XmlDataDocument(dataset);

and passing this xml document as sql parameter using

param.value = new XmlNodeReader(dd);

The XML is like

<NewDataSet><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>1</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>006</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>30</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>211</ChangeOrderID><Amount>0.0000</Amount><Udf_CostReimbursableFlag>false</Udf_CostReimbursableFlag><Udf_CustomerCode /><Udf_SubChangeOrderStatus /></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>2</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>002</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>006</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>30</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>212</ChangeOrderID><Amount>0.0000</Amount><Udf_CostReimbursableFlag>false</Udf_CostReimbursableFlag></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>3</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>111</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>87</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>12</ChangeOrderID><Amount>300.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>4</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>222</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>80</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>6</ChangeOrderID><Amount>100.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>5</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>777</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>79</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>5</ChangeOrderID><Amount>200.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>6</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>786</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>77</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>3</ChangeOrderID><Amount>100.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>7</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>787</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>78</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>4</ChangeOrderID><Amount>500.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>8</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>Con 009</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>219</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>78</ChangeOrderID><Amount>9000.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>9</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>Con 010</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>220</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>79</ChangeOrderID><Amount>13000.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>10</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>Con 012</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>222</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>83</ChangeOrderID><Amount>2300.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>11</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>Con 020</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>226</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>86</ChangeOrderID><Amount>5400.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>12</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>Con 021</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>227</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>87</ChangeOrderID><Amount>2300.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>13</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>Con001</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>208</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>72</ChangeOrderID><Amount>3000.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>14</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>Con002</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>209</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>73</ChangeOrderID><Amount>400.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>15</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>Con003</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>210</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>74</ChangeOrderID><Amount>6000.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>16</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>Con004</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>211</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>75</ChangeOrderID><Amount>9000.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>17</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>Con005</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>213</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>76</ChangeOrderID><Amount>17000.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>18</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>Cont001</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>228</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>89</ChangeOrderID><Amount>2000.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>19</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>PUR001</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>229</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>88</ChangeOrderID><Amount>1000.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>20</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>PUR002</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>230</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>90</ChangeOrderID><Amount>3000.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>21</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>SC-002</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>2</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>7</ChangeOrderID><Amount>200.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders><SubContractChangeOrders><AGCol>22</AGCol><SCO_x0020_Number>001</SCO_x0020_Number><Contract_x0020_Number>SC-004</Contract_x0020_Number><ContractID>7</ContractID><ChangeOrderID>65</ChangeOrderID><Amount>1000.0000</Amount></SubContractChangeOrders></NewDataSet>

I'm trying to read it back as follows

using (SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection("Server=#####;Initial Catalog=#####;User ID=####;Pwd=########"))
        {
            using (SqlCommand com = new SqlCommand("select * from dbo.tbl_#####", con))
            {
                using (SqlDataAdapter ada = new SqlDataAdapter(com))
                {
                    ada.Fill(dt);
                    MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
                    object contractXML1 = dt.Rows[0]["SCOXML1"]; 
                    System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter bf = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
                    bf.Serialize(ms, contractXML1);
                    ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
                    ds.ReadXml(ms);
                }
            }
        }

I'm getting the following error

Data at the root level is invalid. Line 1, position 6.

Any ideas?

---

Update

I changed the code to the following. I'm able to get the structure of the dataset with all the tables added inside it. But not the data.

using (SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection("Server=###;Initial Catalog=####;User ID=###;Pwd=######"))
        {
            using (SqlCommand com = new SqlCommand("select * from dbo.tbl_####", con))
            {
                using (SqlDataAdapter ada = new SqlDataAdapter(com))
                {
                    ada.Fill(dt);
                    MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
                    object contractXML1 = dt.Rows[0]["SCOXML1"];
                    object schema = dt.Rows[0]["xmlSchemaHistory"];
                    XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(object));
                    xs.Serialize(ms, contractXML1);
                    ms.Position = 0;
                    xDoc.Load(ms);
                    xDocSc.LoadXml(schema.ToString());
                    ds.ReadXmlSchema(new XmlNodeReader(xDocSc));
                    ds.ReadXml(new XmlNodeReader(xDoc));
                }
            }
        }

But the underlying xml document is having the data. Any ideas?

NLV

Answer 1

This is a shot in the dark, but your XML may have a byte order marker (BOM) in your XML, and the binary formatter can't deal with it properly without specifying the encoding. If that's the case, then you may have to load your XML into an encoded stream first.

Answer 2

Why are you using the Binary Formatter? In fact, why are you serializing at all? Isn't your XML column using the SQL Server XML data type? If so, then you need to retrieve the data using the SqlXml data type.

---

I've never worked with XML columns and DataTables before. I generally use SqlDataReader for this purpose. However, I can give you a hint: once you've got an SqlXml object, you can get the XmlReader out of it. Once you've got an XmlReader, you can do:

DataTable dt = new DataTable("tableName");
dt.ReadXml(xmlReader);

See "ReadXml(XmlReader)" and "SqlXml.CreateReader Method".