XmlReader.Name Property

Definition

When overridden in a derived class, gets the qualified name of the current node.

public virtual string Name { get; }
public abstract string Name { get; }

Property Value

The qualified name of the current node. For example, Name is bk:book for the element <bk:book>.

The name returned is dependent on the NodeType of the node. The following node types return the listed values. All other node types return an empty string.

Node type Name
Attribute The name of the attribute.
DocumentType The document type name.
Element The tag name.
EntityReference The name of the entity referenced.
ProcessingInstruction The target of the processing instruction.
XmlDeclaration The literal string xml.

Exceptions

An XmlReader method was called before a previous asynchronous operation finished. In this case, InvalidOperationException is thrown with the message "An asynchronous operation is already in progress."

Examples

The following example reads an XML file and displays each of the nodes.

XmlReaderSettings settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
settings.DtdProcessing = DtdProcessing.Parse;
XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create("items.xml", settings);

reader.MoveToContent();
  // Parse the file and display each of the nodes.
  while (reader.Read()) {
    switch (reader.NodeType) {
      case XmlNodeType.Element:
          Console.Write("<{0}>", reader.Name);
          break;
      case XmlNodeType.Text:
          Console.Write(reader.Value);
          break;
       case XmlNodeType.CDATA:
           Console.Write("<![CDATA[{0}]]>", reader.Value);
           break;
       case XmlNodeType.ProcessingInstruction:
           Console.Write("<?{0} {1}?>", reader.Name, reader.Value);
           break;
       case XmlNodeType.Comment:
           Console.Write("<!--{0}-->", reader.Value);
           break;
       case XmlNodeType.XmlDeclaration:
           Console.Write("<?xml version='1.0'?>");
           break;
       case XmlNodeType.Document:
           break;
       case XmlNodeType.DocumentType:
           Console.Write("<!DOCTYPE {0} [{1}]", reader.Name, reader.Value);
           break;
       case XmlNodeType.EntityReference:
           Console.Write(reader.Name);
           break;
       case XmlNodeType.EndElement:
           Console.Write("</{0}>", reader.Name);
           break;
   }
}

The sample uses the items.xml file.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- This is a sample XML document -->
<!DOCTYPE Items [<!ENTITY number "123">]>
<Items>
  <Item>Test with an entity: &number;</Item>
  <Item>Test with a child element <more/> stuff</Item>
  <Item>Test with a CDATA section <![CDATA[<456>]]> def</Item>
  <Item>Test with a char entity: A</Item>
  <!-- Fourteen chars in this element.-->
  <Item>1234567890ABCD</Item>
</Items>

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

See also