Linq to Xml : Exception -The ' ' character

Question

This is my Entity Class with an Entity :

[Table(Name = "CLINICAL_ITEM_MASTER")]
public class ClinicalItemMaster
{
    [Column]
    public int CLIENT_INPUT_MHS_ID { get; set; }
    [Column]
    public Guid CLIENT_INPUT_MHS_GUID { get; set; }
    [Column]
    public string ITEM { get; set; }
    [Column]
    public int ITEM_ID { get; set; }
    [Column]
    public string ITEM_NUMBER { get; set; }
    [Column]
    public string CATEGORY { get; set; }
    [Column]
    public string DESCRIPTION { get; set; }       
    [Column]
    public DateTime? CREATE_DTTM { get; set; }
    [Column]
    public DateTime? UPDATE_DTTM { get; set; }
}

And Here I am accessing that Database Table data using Linq to XML(SQL) approach :

private XElement GetClinicalItemMaster()
{
    try
    {
        using (MyDatabase db = new MyDatabase())
        {
            return new XElement("CLINICALITEMMASTER",
                   from cim in db.TblClinicalItemMaster                           
                   select new XElement("Record",
                       new XElement("CLIENT_INPUT_MHS_ID", cim.CLIENT_INPUT_MHS_ID),
                       new XElement("CLIENT_INPUT_MHS_GUID", cim.CLIENT_INPUT_MHS_GUID.ToString()),
                       new XElement("ITEM ", cim.ITEM),
                       new XElement("ITEM_ID ", cim.ITEM_ID),
                       new XElement("ITEM_NUMBER ", cim.ITEM_NUMBER.ToString()),
                       new XElement("CATEGORY ", cim.CATEGORY.ToString()),
                       new XElement("DESCRIPTION ", cim.DESCRIPTION),
                       new XElement("MFG_CODE ", cim.MFG_CODE)      ));
        }

But here I am getting this error:

The '[white space]' character, hexadecimal value 0x20, cannot be included in a name.

The column is cim.ITEM, as per my analysis its a Non-Nullable column but While getting data from DataBase getting Null(The data per this column is Null)

Answer 1

You have white spaces in elements names, which is not allowed in XML:

new XElement("ITEM ", cim.ITEM), // starting from this element
//                ^ here

Remove white spaces in order to make element names valid. BTW it's completely OK to have null as element value.

Answer 2

Possible reason for the same exception for someone who added the Description decorator with the white space as I did and faced the error. For instance:

[Description("My Property")]
public string MyProperty { get; set; } 

when you run:

new XElement("MyProperty", myObject.MyProperty );

you'll have the same exception.

Answer 3

This generally happens if you are trying to create XML file with spaces in any of its XElement/ nodes. Make sure you don't have any spaces in Xml Node Names.

Example:

This will throw error as there is a space in "Account Number" XElement or node,which is not allowed in XML.

XDocument xdoc = new XDocument(
                            new XDeclaration("1.0", "utf-8", "yes"),
                            new XComment("Create Sample Xml from Dyanamic Data"),
                            new XElement("Company",
                                new XElement("Employees",
                                    from e in DAL.GetEmp()
                                    select 
                                    new XElement("Employee", new XAttribute("id", e.Id),
                                        new XElement("EmpName", e.Name),
                                        new XElement("Designation", e.Designation),
                                        new XElement("Location", e.Location),
                                        new XElement("Account Number", e.Account),
                                        new XElement("PAN", e.Pan),
                                        new XElement("PF", e.PF)))));
        xdoc.Save(@"D:\DynamicFile.xml"); 

Just remove the space in "Account Number" XElement to "AccountNumber". It's done.So look for the spaces if any you have mistakenly created. Hope it might help someone.