AppSettings Clear Xml element in app.config

Question

What is the purpose of the <Clear \> XML element within the <AppSettings> tag in an application's config file?

I see it removes previously added settings (see code below), but why would you want to do that?

<appSettings>
  <add key="LogInformation" value="False"/>
  <add key="LogAPIMessages" value="False"/>
  <add key="LogErrors" value="True"/>
  <clear/> <!--This line removes previously added keys.-->
</appSettings>

I also understand that when manipulating app settings in code you could clear existing keys, but why have the <clear\> XML element?

Also, out of habit really, i've been putting the <clear\> element before any <add> elements. Do i need to do this, should i not be doing this?

Answer 1

This is applicable in scenarios when you have a web application within another web application. E.g you implement blog as a seperate application within your main application. Then in such cases "clear" is used to remove all references to inherited custom application settings, which are inherited from the parent application settings.