XmlReader.Skip Method

Definition

Skips the children of the current node.

public virtual void Skip ();

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 parses an XML file starting on the second book node.

using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create("2books.xml")) {

  // Move the reader to the second book node.
  reader.MoveToContent();
  reader.ReadToDescendant("book");
  reader.Skip(); //Skip the first book.

  // Parse the file starting with the second book node.
  do {
     switch (reader.NodeType) {
        case XmlNodeType.Element:
           Console.Write("<{0}", reader.Name);
           while (reader.MoveToNextAttribute()) {
               Console.Write(" {0}='{1}'", reader.Name, reader.Value);
           }
           Console.Write(">");
           break;
        case XmlNodeType.Text:
           Console.Write(reader.Value);
           break;
        case XmlNodeType.EndElement:
           Console.Write("</{0}>", reader.Name);
           break;
     }
  }  while (reader.Read());
}

The example uses the file, 2books.xml, as input.

<!--sample XML fragment-->
<bookstore>
  <book genre='novel' ISBN='10-861003-324'>
    <title>The Handmaid's Tale</title>
    <price>19.95</price>
  </book>
  <book genre='novel' ISBN='1-861001-57-5'>
    <title>Pride And Prejudice</title>
    <price>24.95</price>
  </book>
</bookstore>

Remarks

In the following XML input if the reader is positioned on the <a> node or any of its attributes, calling Skip positions the reader to the <b> node.

If the reader is positioned on a leaf node already (such as the <x> node or the text node abc), calling Skip is the same as calling Read.

<a name="bob" age="123">
 <x/>abc<y/>
</a>
<b>
...
</b>

This method checks for well-formed XML.

If the reader is an XmlValidatingReader, this method also validates the skipped content.

The XmlReader implementation determines whether or not the Skip method will expand external entities. The following table describes whether the external entities are expanded for the various types of XmlReader objects.

Type of XmlReader Expands external entities
XmlTextReader No.
XmlReader instance created by the Create method that is reading text data. No.
XmlReader instance created by the Create method that is reading binary data. Not applicable.
A schema validating XmlReader instance created by the Create method. Yes.
XmlValidatingReader Yes.
XmlReader instance returned by a XPathNavigator object. Not applicable.
XmlNodeReader No.
XmlReader instance wrapped around another XmlReader instance. Depends on the implementation of the underlying XmlReader. (The Skip method on the underlying XmlReader is called).

For the asynchronous version of this method, see SkipAsync.

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