How to use the event driven SAX(Simple API FOR XML) parser in C# or is it better to use System.XML namespace?

Question

In C++ we can import msxml DLL to our application and then implement the methods of the interface ISAXContentHandler in a class of our application. Later create an ISAXReader object and invoke the contentHandler with the instance of this class where we have given the implemnatation for the eventhandler interfaces.
Similiarly I want to achieve the same thing in C#. Is there any way to do this in C#?? I mean is there any way to have eventbased SAX parsing in C#. There is one more method I thought would help me in achieving parsing the XML documant and getting the XML information to my application. I followed the link "http://www.codeguru.com/csharp/csharp/cs_data/xml/article.php/c4221"

Here DOM is used and System.XML namespace is being used. Can anyone kindly help me with this regard,----What is the way to achieve Event driven XML parsing in C# or should I use System.XML namespace (DOM). if there exists a SAX event driven way plz let me know how to do it in C#

Answer 1

I think the closest you get to a SAX-reader in the .Net framework is the XmlReader class. It is not event based, but it allows you to iterate through the document in a similar manner. Look at this example: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlreader.read.aspx

If you need maximum performance then the XmlReader is a good choice, but there are other alternatives that offer a more friendly api. The XmlDocument class allows you to treat the xml document as a hierarchical tree, while the XDocument allows you to use LINQ to parse the xml. Which one you need depends on which model you are comfortable with and your requirements.

Answer 2

I ran into a similar problem some time ago. While I can't answer which is better, the already implemented System.XML DOM or a C# SAX parser (this really depends on your application), I can tell you that it is indeed possible to implement a SAX parser in C#.

In fact, it has already been done by Martin Friedrich at CodeProject: Towards a Declarative SAX Framework : Part 1 - A Simple SAX-to-C#-Mapping.