Question

I want to create an XML file to store information. I am using the following code. I would like to know how to specify the encoding for this file in code.

When I try to read this file in another form the characters in Japanese are distorted.

XmlDocument writer = new XmlDocument();
XmlElement root = writer.CreateElement("PatientFile");
writer.AppendChild(root);

XmlElement ID = writer.CreateElement("ID");
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(_a2Data.CurrentRecordId))
{
    ID.InnerText = _a2Data.CurrentRecordId;
}
root.AppendChild(ID);

XmlElement patientID = writer.CreateElement("PatientID");
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(_a2Data.PatId))
{
    patientID.InnerText = _a2Data.PatId;
}
root.AppendChild(patientID);

XmlElement patientName = writer.CreateElement("PatientName");
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(_a2Data.PatName))
{
    patientName.InnerText = _a2Data.PatName;
}
root.AppendChild(patientName);

XmlElement room = writer.CreateElement("Room");
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(_a2Data.RoomName))
{
    room.InnerText = _a2Data.RoomName;
}
root.AppendChild(room);
string folderName = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["PatientXMLFiles"];
if (!Directory.Exists(folderName))
    Directory.CreateDirectory(folderName);

string fileName = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["PatientXMLFiles"] + @"\" + _a2Data.CurrentRecordId + ".xml";
writer.Save(fileName);

Answer 1

You are using the overload of the Save method that takes a file name as a parameter. This method uses the UTF-8 encoding. Create an xml declaration before you create the root:

// ...

XmlDeclaration documentType = writer.CreateXmlDeclaration("1.0", "utf-8", null);
writer.AppendChild(documentType);

XmlElement root = writer.CreateElement("PatientFile");
writer.AppendChild(root);

// ...

As a side note, if you want to have control over the encoding that the file is created with, you need to use one of the other overloads of the Save method.