How to read xml file using linq

Question

I have this db.xml file

<items>
 <item>
  <title>Title1</title>
  <year>2013</title>
  <categories>
   <category>Category1</category>
   <category>Category2</category>
   <category>Category3</category>
  </categories>
  <count>10</count>
 </item>
 (and so on)
</items>

I read like that:

var items = from item in xdoc.Descendants("item")
               select new
               {
                   Title = item.Element("title").Value,
                   Year = item.Element("year").Value,
                   Categories = item.Element("categories").Value, // I know this is wrong 
                   Count = item.Element("count").Value
           };

The problem is how I can read the categories and add them to list?

foreach (var item in items)
{
    book.Title = item.Title;
    book.Year = item.Year;
    foreach (var Category in Categories)
    {
        book.Categories.Add(Category);
    }
    book.Count = item.Count;
    books.Add(book);
}

You just need to do the same as you did with the first one, just nest it inside, the principle remains the same — Toon Casteele
– Toon Casteele, Commented Mar 21, 2013 at 13:27

Sergey Berezovskiy · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-21 13:41:48Z

5

It's better to use casting (to string, to int, etc then reading element's value directly. Here is query which returns integer values for Year and Count properties. Categories are IEnumerable<string>:

var items = from item in xdoc.Descendants("item")
            select new {
               Title = (string)item.Element("title"),
               Year = (int)item.Element("year"),
               Count = (int)item.Element("count"),
               Categories = from c in item.Element("categories").Elements()
                            select (string)c                   
            };

If you want Categories as List<string> then parse categories this way:

 Categories = item.Element("categories")
                  .Elements()
                  .Select(c => (string)c)
                  .ToList()

edited Mar 21, 2013 at 13:41

answered Mar 21, 2013 at 13:27

Sergey Berezovskiy

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Comments

Alex · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-21 13:50:00Z

4

You can take the list of its elements

EDITED

var items = from item in xdoc.Descendants("item")
       select new
       {
           Title = item.Element("title").Value,
           Year = item.Element("year").Value,
           Categories = item.Descendants("categories").Descendants().Select(x=>x.Value).ToList(),
           Count = item.Element("count").Value
       };

edited Mar 21, 2013 at 13:50

answered Mar 21, 2013 at 13:27

Alex

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6 Comments

Sergey Berezovskiy Over a year ago

I think this query will produce wrong result. Instead of selecting categories you are returning whole parent element value

Alex Over a year ago

@lazyberezovsky Why? Wont it return the list of categories Descendants?

MarcinJuraszek Over a year ago

Query is incorrect: Categories is List<string> with just one value: Category1Category2Category3.

Alex Over a year ago

@MarcinJuraszek Yep, sorry, missed one Descendants() - answer updated

Alex Over a year ago

@lazyberezovsky Yep, sorry, missed one Descendants() - answer updated

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