XmlTextWriter.WriteProcessingInstruction(String, String) Method

Definition

Writes out a processing instruction with a space between the name and text as follows: <?name text?>.

public override void WriteProcessingInstruction (string name, string? text);
public override void WriteProcessingInstruction (string name, string text);

Parameters

name
String

Name of the processing instruction.

text
String

Text to include in the processing instruction.

Exceptions

The text would result in a non-well formed XML document.

name is either null or String.Empty.

This method is being used to create an XML declaration after WriteStartDocument() has already been called.

Examples

The following example writes an XML file representing a book.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;

public class Sample
{
  private const string filename = "sampledata.xml";

  public static void Main()
  {
     XmlTextWriter writer = null;

     writer = new XmlTextWriter (filename, null);
     //Use indenting for readability.
     writer.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;

     //Write the XML delcaration.
     writer.WriteStartDocument();

     //Write the ProcessingInstruction node.
     String PItext="type='text/xsl' href='book.xsl'";
     writer.WriteProcessingInstruction("xml-stylesheet", PItext);

     //Write the DocumentType node.
     writer.WriteDocType("book", null , null, "<!ENTITY h 'hardcover'>");

     //Write a Comment node.
     writer.WriteComment("sample XML");

     //Write a root element.
     writer.WriteStartElement("book");

     //Write the genre attribute.
     writer.WriteAttributeString("genre", "novel");

     //Write the ISBN attribute.
     writer.WriteAttributeString("ISBN", "1-8630-014");

     //Write the title.
     writer.WriteElementString("title", "The Handmaid's Tale");

     //Write the style element.
     writer.WriteStartElement("style");
     writer.WriteEntityRef("h");
     writer.WriteEndElement();

     //Write the price.
     writer.WriteElementString("price", "19.95");

     //Write CDATA.
     writer.WriteCData("Prices 15% off!!");

     //Write the close tag for the root element.
     writer.WriteEndElement();

     writer.WriteEndDocument();

     //Write the XML to file and close the writer.
     writer.Flush();
     writer.Close();

     //Load the file into an XmlDocument to ensure well formed XML.
     XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
     //Preserve white space for readability.
     doc.PreserveWhitespace = true;
     //Load the file.
     doc.Load(filename);

     //Display the XML content to the console.
     Console.Write(doc.InnerXml);
  }
}

Remarks

Note

Starting with the .NET Framework 2.0, we recommend that you create XmlWriter instances by using the XmlWriter.Create method and the XmlWriterSettings class to take advantage of new functionality.

If text is either null or String.Empty, this method writes a ProcessingInstruction with no data content, for example <?name?>.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET 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 2.0, 2.1