Applied XML Programming for Microsoft® .NET

Writing a Custom XML Reader

We have one more topic to consider on the subject of XML readers, which opens up a whole new world of opportunities: creating customized XML readers. An XML reader class is merely a programming interface for reading data that appears to be XML. The XmlTextReader class represents the simplest and the fastest of all possible XML readers but—and this is what really matters—it is just one reader. Its inherent simplicity and effectiveness stems from two key points. First, the class operates as a read-only, forward-only, nonvalidating parser. Second, the class is assumed to work on native XML data. It has no need, and no subsequent overhead, to map input data internally to XML data structures.

Virtually any data can be ...