Handling XML Parsing Exceptions in .NET - How to Distinguish between Well-formed and Valid XML Errors
I've searched everywhere and can't find a clear answer. Hey everyone, I'm running into an issue that's driving me crazy. I'm working with XML parsing in a .NET application using System.Xml. I've set up a try-catch block to handle potential exceptions when loading and parsing XML documents, but I'm struggling to differentiate between well-formed XML errors and XML Schema validation errors. My goal is to provide more user-friendly error messages depending on the type of error encountered. Here's the relevant portion of my code: ```csharp using System; using System.Xml; public class XmlParser { public void LoadXml(string xmlFilePath) { try { XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument(); xmlDoc.Load(xmlFilePath); // Assuming there's a schema validation set up here xmlDoc.Schemas.Add(null, "schema.xsd"); xmlDoc.Validate(ValidationEventHandler); } catch (XmlException ex) { Console.WriteLine("XML Error: " + ex.Message); } catch (SchemaValidationException ex) { Console.WriteLine("Schema Validation Error: " + ex.Message); } catch (Exception ex) { Console.WriteLine("General Error: " + ex.Message); } } private void ValidationEventHandler(object sender, ValidationEventArgs e) { throw new SchemaValidationException(e.Message); } } ``` When I run this code against an XML file, if the XML is not well-formed, I get an `XmlException`, which is expected, but I don't know how to properly catch and distinguish the `SchemaValidationException` from `XmlException`. I want to provide distinct error messages to the user, but the current approach doesn't seem to suffice. For instance, if I have an XML like this: ```xml <root> <element>Value</element> </root> ``` And I run it against a schema that expects an attribute that’s not present, I want to catch that validation error precisely. However, when I throw the `SchemaValidationException` in the `ValidationEventHandler`, it seems to be caught in the same `catch (XmlException ex)` block. I'm using .NET 5.0. How can I effectively separate these exception types for more informative error reporting? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Any pointers in the right direction?