XMLElement

XmlElement is a class in the XML Document Object Model (DOM) representing an element node in an XML document. In .NET and other DOM implementations, an element corresponds to a start tag, its content, and the end tag. As a concrete node type, XmlElement participates in tree navigation and in the manipulation of an XML document in memory. It inherits behavior from a generic XmlNode while adding element-specific features.

Key properties include Name, LocalName, NamespaceURI, and Prefix, which describe the element’s qualified name and its namespace context. The Attributes property returns a collection of attributes associated with the element. XmlElement also exposes content-related properties such as InnerText and InnerXml for the element’s textual content and OuterXml for the complete markup of the element, including its start and end tags.

Common methods support attribute management and child-node operations. Attribute-related methods include GetAttribute, SetAttribute, RemoveAttribute, and the corresponding GetAttributeNode/SetAttributeNode methods. Element-specific navigation is provided by GetElementsByTagName to fetch descendant elements by tag name. As a subclass of XmlNode, XmlElement also supports DOM operations such as AppendChild, RemoveChild, and InsertBefore for managing the element’s children.

Usage usually involves creating elements within an XmlDocument, setting attributes, and appending child nodes to build or modify a document in memory. The element can be serialized via OuterXml or saved to a file or stream through standard DOM serialization. XmlElement is a key building block in DOM-based XML programming and is interoperable with XPath queries and namespace-aware processing.