check if a node value is null

Question

I have this xml file :

<key1>value 1</key1>
<key2>value 2</key2>
<key3>value 3</key3>
<key4>value 4</key4>

I would like to parse it and get a dictionnary containing all the attributes of my element. To do that I have this code :

using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(xmlString)))
{
    string key="";
    string value="";      
    while (reader.Read())
    {
        switch (reader.NodeType)
        {
            case XmlNodeType.Element:
                key=(reader.Name)
                break;
            case XmlNodeType.Text:
                value=(reader.Value)
                element_dictionnary.Add(key,value);
                break;                
        }
    }    
}

Everything is working fine, the problem is if one node is empty like with this file :

<key1></key1>
<key2>value 2</key2>
<key3>value 3</key3>
<key4>value 4</key4>

Everything is shifted and my dictionnary becomes this :

key1/value2
key2/value3
.....

So basicaly, I would like to know how it's possible to associate the node value to the node name, even if the node value is empty.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

Just check that reader.Value is empty using

string.IsNullOrEmpty(reader.Value)

So your code become

switch (reader.NodeType)
{
    case XmlNodeType.Element:
        key=(reader.Name)
        break;
    case XmlNodeType.Text:
        value=(reader.Value)
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
            element_dictionnary.Add(key,value);
        break;                
}