Is it possible to save the current XMLReader Position for later use?

Question

I have created an XMLReader object out of a Stream object which I was written to earlier by XMLWriter object.

I know XMLReader object is forward only and therefore I want to be able to save current reading position, so I will be able to continue read just from the place I stopped reading.

Is it possible?
I know it is maybe tricky, as XMLreader read chunks of memory blocks so maybe it will be a problem to restore current XML element reading point.

Please advice only if you know for sure, it will work from your experience with this issue specifically.

Note :
1. I thought of simply saving the whole XMLReader object reference for that scenario.
2. XMLReader Position = current pointer to reading element not Stream.Position as it is something else.

Answer 1

I work in a project where an external system writes xmls (without a defined namespace) and we need to read them to find nodes with some special values:

• When the value is not ready, we read again after a few minutes.
• In other case, we process the node (attributes, values, etc.)

So, I think this code can help you:

var input1 = @"<root>
 <ta>
   <XGLi6id90>774825484.1418393</XGLi6id90>
   <VAfrBVB>
     <EG60sk>1030847709.7303829</EG60sk>
     <XR>NOT_READY</XR>
   </VAfrBVB>
 </ta>
 <DxshpR>1123</DxshpR>

var input2 = @"<root>
 <ta>
   <XGLi6id90>774825484.1418393</XGLi6id90>
   <VAfrBVB>
     <EG60sk>1030847709.7303829</EG60sk>
     <XR>99999999</XR>
   </VAfrBVB>
 </ta>
 <DxshpR>1123</DxshpR>

var stream1 = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(input1));
var stream2 = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(input2));
stream1.Position = 0;
stream2.Position = 0;

var position1 = DoWork(stream1, new Position());
var position2 = DoWork(stream2, position1);

    public static Position DoWork(Stream stream, Position position)
    {
        using (XmlTextReader xmlTextReader = new XmlTextReader(stream))
        {
            using (XmlReader xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(xmlTextReader, xmlReaderSettings))
            {
                // restores the last position 
                xmlTextReader.SetPosition(position);

                System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(xmlReader.Value); // Second time prints 99999999

                while (xmlReader.Value != "NOT_READY" && xmlReader.Read())
                {
                    // a custom logic to process nodes....
                }

                // saves the position to process later ...
                position = xmlTextReader.GetPosition();

                System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(xmlReader.Value); // First time prints NOT_READY
            }

        }

        return position;
    }
}

public class Position
{
    public int LinePosition { get; set; }
    public int LineNumber { get; set; }
}

public static class XmlReaderExtensions
{
    public static void SetPosition(this XmlTextReader xmlTextReader, Position position)
    {
        if (position != null)
        {
            while (xmlTextReader.LineNumber < position.LineNumber && xmlTextReader.Read())
            {
            }

            while (xmlTextReader.LinePosition < position.LinePosition && xmlTextReader.Read())
            {
            }
        }
    }

    public static Position GetPosition(this XmlTextReader xmlTextReader)
    {
        Position output;

        if (xmlTextReader.EOF)
        {
            output = new Position();
        }
        else
        {
            output = new Position { LineNumber = xmlTextReader.LineNumber, LinePosition = xmlTextReader.LinePosition };
        }

        return output;
    }
}

Important and obviously, it will work only when the structure of the xml (line breaks, nodes, etc.) is always the same. In other case, it will not work.