Question

To load XML files with arbitrary encoding I have the following code:

Encoding encoding; using (var reader = new XmlTextReader(filepath)) {     reader.MoveToContent();     encoding = reader.Encoding; }  var settings = new XmlReaderSettings { NameTable = new NameTable() }; var xmlns = new XmlNamespaceManager(settings.NameTable); var context = new XmlParserContext(null, xmlns, '', XmlSpace.Default,      encoding); using (var reader = XmlReader.Create(filepath, settings, context)) {     return XElement.Load(reader); } 

This works, but it seems a bit inefficient to open the file twice. Is there a better way to detect the encoding such that I can do:

1. Open file
2. Detect encoding
3. Read XML into an XElement
4. Close file

Answer 1

Ok, I should have thought of this earlier. Both XmlTextReader (which gives us the Encoding) and XmlReader.Create (which allows us to specify encoding) accepts a Stream. So how about first opening a FileStream and then use this with both XmlTextReader and XmlReader, like this:

using (var txtreader = new FileStream(filepath, FileMode.Open)) {     using (var xmlreader = new XmlTextReader(txtreader))     {         // Read in the encoding info         xmlreader.MoveToContent();         var encoding = xmlreader.Encoding;          // Rewind to the beginning         txtreader.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);          var settings = new XmlReaderSettings { NameTable = new NameTable() };         var xmlns = new XmlNamespaceManager(settings.NameTable);         var context = new XmlParserContext(null, xmlns, '', XmlSpace.Default,                  encoding);          using (var reader = XmlReader.Create(txtreader, settings, context))         {             return XElement.Load(reader);         }     } } 

This works like a charm. Reading XML files in an encoding independent way should have been more elegant but at least I’m getting away with only one file open.