It depends on the way you write out the XML Document but if you use
identical structure, I've found them dead ringers if I'm coding the exact
same stuff. Usually the hit is in loading the thing, either from the DB or
from a ReadXML. In general, db queries seem notably quicker than ReadXML
statements of exact same records but there are a whole lot of factors that
can influence it. I will tell you that using DataSets is a lot cleaner code
wise in most instances. You can take a whole Dataset and make an XML doc out
of it with DataSet.WriteXML(). Again there are too many factors that can
sway things back and forth, but for absolute apples to apples, I don't think
the difference has ever been worth metioning.
--
W.G. Ryan, eMVP
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