How do I create an xmlElement from the current node of a xmlReader?

If I have an xmlreader instance how can I use it to read its current node and end up with a xmlElement instance?

From stackoverflow

• Not tested, but how about via an XmlDocument:

      XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
      doc.Load(reader);
      XmlElement el = doc.DocumentElement;
  

  Alternatively (from the cmoment), something like:

      doc.LoadXml(reader.ReadOuterXml());
  

  But actually I'm not a fan of that... it forces an additional xml-parse step (one of the more CPU-expensive operations) for no good reason. If the original is being glitchy, then perhaps consider a sub-reader:

      using (XmlReader subReader = reader.ReadSubtree())
      {
          XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
          doc.Load(subReader);
          XmlElement el = doc.DocumentElement;
      }
  

  TheDeeno : change line 2 to doc.LoadXml(reader.ReadOuterXml()); so I can accept. Thanks.

  Sunny : How this answers the question? This will read the whole xml into XmlDocument, and will return the root element only.

  Marc Gravell : @Sunny; the root element contains all other elements as descendants

• Assuming that you have XmlDocument, where you need to attach the newly created XmlElement:

  XmlElement myElement;
  myXmlReader.Read();
  if (myXmlReader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element)
  {
     myElement = doc.CreateElement(myXmlReader.Name);
     myElement.InnerXml = myXmlReader.InnerXml;
  }
  

  From the docs: Do not instantiate an XmlElement directly; instead, use methods such as CreateElement.