Adding new element with child nodes Xml and C#

Question

I have a windows form application I am writing and I want to create an xml file and add data to it.

The code is below.

 xmlFile = new XDocument(
                    new XDeclaration("1.0", "utf-8", "yes"),
                    new XComment("XML File for storing " + RootName));
xmlFile.Add(new XElement(RootName));

// Loop through the list and create a new element for each item in the list
foreach (Contact c in contactsList)
{
    try
    {
        xmlFile.Add(new XElement("Contact",
            new XElement("Name", c.Name),
            new XElement("Email", c.EmailAddress),
            new XElement("Mobile Number", c.MobileNumber),
            new XElement("Mobile Carrier", c.sMobileCarrier)
            )
        );
    }
    catch
    {
        MessageBox.Show("ERROR WITH NEW ELEMENTS");
    }
}
xmlFile.Save(FileName);

When I run the program, the try block throws and error and I get the message box error. When I debug, the program says the exception has to do with:

The ' ' character, hexadecimal value 0x20, cannot be included in a name.

I am not sure what this means, because I checked all the values being passed in and upto the point of entry, there is something there.

Am I missing a parameter in the xmlFile.Add() statement?

One last question, when I insert the Root element after creating the XDocument object, in the file it comes out as <Contacts />, which I want to be the closing root tag.

How do I get the starting tag inserted, and then when I go to save at the end, it appends the closing tag?

Thanks

Update--------------------- Thanks to MarcinJuraszek, I was able to get past that exception being thrown, but now i get this error:

This operation would create an incorrectly structured document.

Any ideas what that means or what is causing it?

MarcinJuraszek · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-16 19:09:04Z

2

The error message is clear: XML element name cannot contain space. You're trying to do exactly that:

        new XElement("Mobile Number", c.MobileNumber),
        new XElement("Mobile Carrier", c.sMobileCarrier)

Change these lines to not contain spaces and it should work. e.g.

        new XElement("MobileNumber", c.MobileNumber),
        new XElement("MobileCarrier", c.sMobileCarrier)

How do I get the starting tag inserted, and then when I go to save at the end, it appends the closing tag?

Don't worry about starting/closing tags. XElement.Save method will take care of that.

Update

The second problem here is a fact, that you're trying to create document with multiple root elements. That's because instead of adding new content into root XElement you're trying to add it directly into XDocument instance.

Try following:

    xmlFile.Root.Add(new XElement("Contact",
        new XElement("Name", c.Name),
        new XElement("Email", c.EmailAddress),
        new XElement("MobileNumber", c.MobileNumber),
        new XElement("MobileCarrier", c.sMobileCarrier)
        )

edited Oct 16, 2013 at 19:09

answered Oct 16, 2013 at 18:51

MarcinJuraszek

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1 Comment

RXC Over a year ago

Thanks for the answer, but now I am getting a different error. Any ideas on that one?

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