How do I comment out an XML section that has comments inside?

Question

How do I comment out an XML section that has comments inside?

The following won't work. It only comments out stuff0:

<!-- stuff0 <!-- stuff1 --> stuff2 <!-- stuff3 --> stuff4 <!-- stuff5 --> stuff6 --> 

Answer 1

You shouldn't do it, I know. Per the XML specification you aren't supposed to.

Having said that... I really needed it badly, so here's the trick. Surround the section you want to comment with an unused processing instruction:

<some-tags />  <?comment   <!-- traditional comment 1 -->   <badtag prop1="123">     <!-- traditional comment 2 -->           </badtag>   <!-- traditional comment 3 --> ?>  <rest-of-my-tags /> 

You can use any processing instruction that's not in use. I chose "comment" as the unused processing instruction, so I started the big comment with <?comment and ended it with ?>.

Pretty much any word will do as a processing instruction, since they aren't really used most of the time. I mean, when was the last time you used one?