This document summarizes the .NET Framework XML classes and the processing options they provide.
The XML classes in the .NET Framework have been designed to offer:
High productivity
Compliance with W3C standards
Extensibility
A pluggable architecture
High performance
Integration with ADO.NET
For detailed information on the suite of XML classes in the .NET Framework, see the System.Xml, System.Xml.XPath, System.Xml.Xsl, System.Xml.Schema, and System.Xml.Linq namespaces.
In-memory XML processing: The .NET Framework provides three options for processing XML data in-memory: LINQ to XML the XPathNavigator class, and the XmlDocument class.
Stream-based XML processing: The XmlWriter and XmlReader classes provide a non-cached, forward-only means of processing XML data.
For more information, see XML Processing Options in the .NET Framework.