Controlling the order of XML namepaces

Question

I'm having a problem getting the "xmlns" to appear first in the root attribute list.

Im getting this:

  <myroot 
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.someurl.com/ns/myroot http://www.someurl.com/xml/schemas/myschema.xsd"
        xmlns="http://www.someurl.com/ns/myroot"&gt; 

       <sometag>somecontent</sometag>

    </myroot>

And i want this:

<myroot 
        xmlns="http://www.someurl.com/ns/myroot" 
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.someurl.com/ns/myroot http://www.someurl.com/xml/schemas/myschema.xsd"&gt;

       <sometag>somecontent</sometag>

    </myroot>

My code looks like this:

  XNamespace rt = "http://www.someurl.com/ns/myroot";
        XNamespace xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance";

        var submissionNode = new XElement(XmlNameSpaces.rt + "myroot");
        submissionNode.Add(new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "xsi", "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"));
        submissionNode.Add(new XAttribute(xsi + "schemaLocation", @"http://www.someurl.com/ns/myroot http://www.someurl.com/xml/schemas/myschema.xsd"););

What do i need to do different to change the order?

EDIT: I understand the order is not normally relavent, but its a requirement in this case.

Answer 1

IIRC, the order of attributes (in xml) is unimportant... so why change it? Is it causing an actual problem?

Answer 2

Would XmlWriter be an option for you?

Afaik, it gives you full control of the order of attributes and namespace declarations.

Answer 3

Attribute ordering is NOT specified in the XML document, and shouldn't be relied upon. It may be worth looking at the spec

You'll find that if you read a XML document into a DOM, and write it out, regardless of the platform/library, you can't (and shouldn't) rely on the attribute ordering. It's a common misconception, btw!

Answer 4

Software that requires attributes to be in a specified order doesn't conform to the XML recommendation.

The first question you should be asking is not, "How can I produce XML with namespace attributes in a defined order?" Instead, it should be, "What are the other respects in which this software doesn't conform to the XML recommendation?" Because I will bet you one crisp new American dollar that if the recipient's process violates the XML recommendation in one respect, it violates it in at least one other.