I have a dataset from which I need to extract certain columns, format
them into xml and output to an xmldocument object.

From reading various posts on similar subjects, I have come up with
the following test code (using 2 constants, rather than my dataset
values):

Public Sub test()
   Dim doc As New XmlDocument
   Dim xmlStream As Stream = New MemoryStream
   Dim xmlWriter As New XmlTextWriter(xmlStream, Encoding.UTF8)
   ' Dim xmlWriter As New XmlTextWriter(Console.Out)

   xmlWriter.Formatting = Formatting.Indented

   xmlWriter.WriteStartDocument()
   xmlWriter.WriteStartElement("ENTRY_DTL")
   xmlWriter.WriteElementString("ORG_CODE", "10")
   xmlWriter.WriteElementString("FISCAL_YR",
XmlConvert.ToString(2003))
   xmlWriter.WriteEndElement()
   xmlWriter.WriteEndDocument()
   Try
     doc.Load(xmlStream)
   Catch ex As Exception
     MsgBox(ex, ex.Message)
   End Try
End Sub

However the doc.load throws a 'missing root' exception and, on closer
inspection, xmlStream is a null stream. The commented line shows me
the writer is constructing the xml to Console OK, but it doesnt seem
to go into the MemoryStream at all.

Can anyone offer any assistance to an XML virgin who's struggling.

As an aside, am I just going about this the wrong way and would be
better off applying a dataview to my dataset, to get the required
columns, and then somehow writing that directly to an xmldoc?

Thanks,