How to validate an XML document?

My C#/.NET application reads XML files that are manually edited by the users. The allowed elements and tags are described in the application's documentation. I'm using LINQ to extract data from the XML file.

Before extracting data from the XML file, I'd like to validate it to see if it has the expected structure. If not, it would be nice to have information about what is wrong so that I can give some feeback to the user.

What's the simplest way to do this in C#?

Solution

You can validate xml files against XSD.

First you have to create Xml Schema Definition file. See example
use XML Schema Definition Tool to create XSD from XMLfile
Use this code to validate input XML using corresponding XSD

Hope this will help...

EDIT

This article explains all possible ways to validate xml, using C#
How To Validate an XML Document by Using DTD, XDR, or XSD in Visual C# .NET

IMO best option is to use XSD.