Question

I’m trying to parser a wrong XML code with XmlStringReader, like this one.

<Page CODE=""L"" page Caption=""Example""><Cell CellType="0"...></Cell></Page>

and with this code, I try to get the value from the cell type attribute in the Cell Tag.

        Using reader As XmlReader = XmlTextReader.Create(New StringReader(l.Label), New XmlReaderSettings With {
                                                     .ValidationType = ValidationType.None,
                                                     .XmlResolver = Nothing})
               While (reader.ReadToFollowing("Cell"))
            reader.MoveToAttribute("CellType")
            Select Case Int32.Parse(reader.Value)
                  ...
            End Select
        End While

So I get the following XmlException

‘Caption’ is an unexpected token. The expected token is ‘=’

Are there any ways to avoid this exception? or Should I parse the xml before this to fix the attribute wrong written?

Thanks

Answer 1

Should I parse the xml before this to fix the attribute wrong written?

It’s not XML. It’s something which looks a bit like XML, but isn’t really. Don’t try to read non-XML with XML APIs. It will – and should – fail.

Ideally, fix whatever producing the pseudo-XML to start with.