To read from xml file

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No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1. Find the XML file. You can use your computer's "Open With" feature to open the XML file in a text editor, which will allow you to see the XML file's code in plain-text form.

Right-click the XML file. Doing so will prompt a drop-down menu. Select Open with. It's near the middle of the drop-down menu. A pop-out menu will appear.

On a Mac, you'll find Open With in the File drop-down menu. If you don't see Open with on Windows, click once the XML file to select it, then right-click the file. Select your computer's text editor. Export XML data. Need more help? Expand your skills. Get new features first.

Was this information helpful? Yes No. Thank you! Any more feedback? The more you tell us the more we can help. Can you help us improve? Resolved my issue. Clear instructions. Easy to follow. No jargon. Pictures helped. Didn't match my screen. Incorrect instructions. Too technical. XML files are encoded in plaintext, so you can open them in any text editor and be able to clearly read it.

These are the pre-installed text editors for each operating system, and should already be on the list. Any basic text editors will work.

If they aren't on the list, you'll need to browse for them. You can still see all of the information using a simple text editor.

Interpret the text on the screen. Your XML file will open in your text editor. The complexity of the file is dependent on what it was created for. Use the tag labels to find the information you are looking for. Generally the labels will be fairly self-explanatory, allowing you to browse through the data and find the information you need. This indicates that the following content is in XML format.

XML uses custom tags to house pieces of data. Each of these tags are created for whatever program is using it, so there is no common syntax to the markup labels. Tags can be nested inside other tags, creating a tree.

Method 2. While you can use any basic text editor to open an XML file see above , opening the file in a browser may make it a little easier to navigate. This is because most browsers automatically indent nested tags and allow you to collapse each section of the the XML tree.

Right-click the file and select "Open With. Select a web browser from the list of programs. You can open the XML file in any web browser. Oftentimes, your web browser will already be on the list of suggested programs. If it isn't, you'll need to browse for it on your computer. Read the XML file in your browser.

The XML file will open in a new tab in your browser. All of the contents will be displayed, and your browser will automatically indent nested tags. This can make it easier to tell which data belongs to which set. Expand or minimize sections for easier reading. The big advantage to using a browser to read XML files is the ability to control what you see.

Method 3. Open Excel. Linq 2 xml XmlTextReader. XmlDocument XPathDocument read-only access. Dirk Vollmar k 53 53 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Actually, XmlReader. Create instead of using XmlTextReader directly, since.

NET 2. ReadXml stringReader ; Posting this for the sake of information. Not ideal when you have multiple levels as it appears to put each level into its own table within the dataset. It's still fine for that even. I guess it really depends on what your data actually looks like and how many layers deep the data is that you're after.

Grzenio Grzenio Not accurate, I should think, unless that statement was in jest. The OP has provided no info. NET version he works on. Heh, yeah. It was in jest, but I'm not funny, so I removed it.

Quintin Balsdon 4, 9 9 gold badges 49 49 silver badges 89 89 bronze badges. Frederik Gheysels Frederik Gheysels Combine path, "XMLFile7.

Element: break; case XmlNodeType. Text: columnNames. Add reader. Value ; break; case XmlNodeType. Vishal Kotak Vishal Kotak 3 3 silver badges 11 11 bronze badges. This is the same technique used by this answer from 11 years ago. LoadText xml.