Error: "Error parsing XML: XML or text declaration not at start of entity"

Question

I am making a Sudoku Android app and I am getting the following errors under main.xml: "error: Error parsing XML: XML or text declaration not at start of entity" Any help would be appreciated. Here is my code. I put '✗' next to the error

  `✗<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout      xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     android:orientation="vertical"     android:layout_height="fill_parent"     android:layout_width="fill_parent">          <TextView             android:layout_width="fill_parent"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:text="@String/continue_label"/>          <Button             android:id="@+id/continue_button"             android:layout_width="fill_parent"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:text="@string/continue_label" />          <Button             android:id="@+id/new_button"             android:layout_width="fill_parent"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:text="@string/new_game_label"/>          <Button              android:id="@+id/about_button"             android:layout_Width="fill_parent"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:text="@string/new_game_label"/>          <Button             android:id="@+id/exit_button"             android:layout_Width="fill_parent"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:text="@string/exit_label"/>     </LinearLayout> 

`

Answer 1

There can be two cases -

case 1 - If you have an empty space before the first statement.

case 2 - If you have accidently put the same namespacing statement twice ie - ?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?

I did it once and landed with the same error of yours after correcting it my code runs fine. hope this helps

Answer 2

In some case, if you have two XML version ( xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" )at the top of my file, you will have this error :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     android:shape="rectangle">      ...  </shape> 

Just keep one and it's ok