How to prevent XDocument from adding XML version and encoding information

Question

Despite using the SaveOptions.DisableFormatting option in the following code:

XDocument xmlDoc = XDocument.Load(FileManager.SourceFile); 
string element="campaign";
string attribute="id";

var items = from item in xmlDoc.Descendants(element)                        
            select item;

foreach (XElement itemAttribute in items)
{
    itemAttribute.SetAttributeValue(attribute, "it worked!");
    //itemElement.SetElementValue("name", "Lord of the Rings Figures");
}

xmlDoc.Save(TargetFile, SaveOptions.DisableFormatting);

the target XML file gets this added to it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

Is there a way to preserve the original formatting and not have the version and encoding information added?

Solution

That's the behaviour of the XDocument.Save method when serializing to a file or a TextWriter. If you want to omit the XML declaration, you can either use XmlWriter (as shown below) or call ToString. Refer to Serializing with an XML Declaration.

XDocument xmlDoc = XDocument.Load(FileManager.SourceFile); 

// perform your modifications on xmlDoc here

XmlWriterSettings xws = new XmlWriterSettings { OmitXmlDeclaration = true };
using (XmlWriter xw = XmlWriter.Create(targetFile, xws))
    xmlDoc.Save(xw);

Comments

[John Saunders]

That's not formatting. It's part of the document. What problem causes you to want that removed?