LoadOptions.PreserveWhitespace
Imports System Imports System.IO Imports System.Xml Imports System.Xml.XPath Public Class MainClass Public Shared Sub Main() Dim sr As TextReader Dim whiteSpaceNodes As Integer sr = New StringReader("<Root> <Child> </Child> </Root>") Dim xmlTree2 As XDocument = XDocument.Load(sr, LoadOptions.PreserveWhitespace) sr.Close() whiteSpaceNodes = xmlTree2 _ .Element("Root") _ .DescendantNodesAndSelf() _ .OfType(Of XText)() _ .Where(Function(ByVal tNode As XNode) tNode. _ ToString().Trim().Length = 0).Count() Console.WriteLine("Count of white space nodes (preserving whitespace): {0}", whiteSpaceNodes) End Sub End Class