How do I test if XML is well formed using .Net API?

Well-formed means – The XML code must be syntactically correct or the XML parser will raise an error. However it still may not be ‘Valid’ especially if it has a schema associated with it. If you want to just test for Well-formed xml without testing for validity, there is no API for doing this except to encapsulate the code in try-catch which will automatically throw an exception if the xml is not Well-Formed. Here is a simple example:

XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(...);
try 
{
   while (reader.Read());
  //XML is ok
} 
catch (Exception e) 
{
  //Malformed XML            }

Otherwise the XmlValidatingReader class can be used to test both for Well-Formed XML and Valid XML.

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