Member Avatar for sadhawan

Hi Guys i am trying to insert xml file in database but i am getting this error text/xmldecl not at the beginning of input.Can anyone tell me how to fix this.
thanks

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by nick.crane

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That error means the XML parser found something before the XML declaration token (the <?xml ...?> PI) or saw stray bytes where the declaration must start. Common culprits are an invisible UTF-8 BOM, one or more whitespace/newline characters, an accidentally prepended MIME/HTTP header or log text, or a wrong stream position when the file is read. When present, the XML declaration must be the very first thing in the input.

Quick checks to show what is actually at the start of the file:

  • Open the file in a hex viewer (or run xxd -l 16 file.xml / hexdump -C file.xml | head -n 1) and look for EF BB BF (UTF-8 BOM) or any bytes before 3C 3F 78 6D (<?xm).
  • From PowerShell: 
    PS> [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes('C:\path\file.xml')[0..3]

    If the BOM (0xEF,0xBB,0xBF) or stray characters are present, remove them or re-save the file as "UTF-8 without BOM". Also confirm the encoding="..." in the XML declaration matches the actual bytes.

Simple programmatic fixes

  • C# (strip BOM and leading whitespace before parsing):
    string xml = File.ReadAllText(path, Encoding.UTF8);
xml = xml.TrimStart('\uFEFF').TrimStart();
var doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(xml);
  • T-SQL (if XML text is already in a variable):
    SET @xml = REPLACE(@xml, NCHAR(65279), ''); -- remove BOM
SET @xml = LTRIM(@xml);                      -- remove leading whitespace
-- then cast/parse as XML or use sp_xml_preparedocument

As suggested, the most useful diagnostics to post are the exact first 100–200 characters (or their hex bytes) and the snippet of code used to read/insert the XML. A caution: simply deleting the BOM in the file without ensuring encoding correctness can cause different parsing/character problems later, so match file encoding and the XML declaration.

Member Avatar for nick.crane

The error probably means your xml file is missing some required declaration at the begining.
Can you show some code and the xml file.

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