How Do I...Read XML data from a stream?

This sample illustrates how to read XML from a stream using the XmlReader class. The stream could have come from a variety of sources, such as a byte stream from a server, a file, or a TextReader.

Note: This sample follows on from the How do I...Read XML from a file? topic.

The static Create method on the XmlReader has different overloads to specify the location of the XML data. This sample creates the XmlReader and loads the data from a stream. A stream is an abstract representation of an input or output device that is the source of or destination for data (in this case, XML data). You can write to a stream and read from a stream, which is best visualized as a flow of bytes. A stream provides independence from the device and requires no program changes if, for example, the source of a stream changes.

This sample creates a StringReader class that builds up an XML string. Because this is purely a byte stream held in memory, you can get the XmlReader to parse this stream as XML. The memory stream has no particular specified encoding.

//Create XmlReader and load reader from stream reader = XmlReader.Create(stream); 'Create XmlReader and load reader from stream reader = XmlReader.Create(stream) //Create XmlReader and load reader from the stream reader = XmlReader::Create(stream); //Create XmlReader and load reader from stream reader = XmlReader.Create(stream);