This property enables you to determine the difference between the following:

<item num="123"/> (IsEmptyElement is true).

<item num="123"></item> (IsEmptyElement is false, although element content is empty).

A corresponding EndElement node is not generated for empty elements.

If default content has been added to an element due to schema validation, IsEmptyElement still returns true. It has no bearing on whether or not the element has a default value. In other words, IsEmptyElement simply reports whether or not the element in the source document had an end element tag.

The following example displays the text content of each element.

While reader.Read()
  If reader.IsStartElement() Then
    If reader.IsEmptyElement Then
      Console.WriteLine("<{0}/>", reader.Name)
    Else
      Console.Write("<{0}> ", reader.Name)
      reader.Read() ' Read the start tag.
      If reader.IsStartElement() Then ' Handle nested elements.
        Console.Write(vbCr + vbLf + "<{0}>", reader.Name)
      End If
      Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadString()) 'Read the text content of the element.
    End If
  End If
End While

while (reader.Read()) {
  if (reader.IsStartElement()) {
    if (reader.IsEmptyElement)
      Console.WriteLine("<{0}/>", reader.Name);
    else {
      Console.Write("<{0}> ", reader.Name);
      reader.Read(); // Read the start tag.
      if (reader.IsStartElement())  // Handle nested elements.
        Console.Write("\r\n<{0}>", reader.Name);
      Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadString());  //Read the text content of the element.
    }
  } 
} 

The example uses the file, elems.xml, as input.

<book>
  <title>Pride And Prejudice</title>
  <price>19.95</price>
  <misc/>
</book>

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune

.NET Framework

.NET Compact Framework

XNA Framework

Reference

Other Resources