Collect attributes from a XML file by XMLReader

Question

I have an XML file as below.

<BOOK bnumber="1" bname="Book">
    <CHAPTER cnumber="1">
       <Sentence vnumber="1">This is the sentence 1.</Sentence>
       <Sentence vnumber="2">This is the sentence 2.</Sentence>
       <Sentence vnumber="3">This is the sentence 3.</Sentence>
   </CHAPTER>
   <CHAPTER cnumber="2">
       <Sentence vnumber="1">Hello World 1.</Sentence>
       <Sentence vnumber="2">Hello World 2.</Sentence>
       <Sentence vnumber="3">Hello World 3.</Sentence>
       <Sentence vnumber="4">Hello World 4.</Sentence>
  </CHAPTER>
  <CHAPTER cnumber="3">
       <Sentence vnumber="1">Good morning 1.</Sentence>
       <Sentence vnumber="2">Good morning 2.</Sentence>
       <Sentence vnumber="3">Good morning 3.</Sentence>
  </CHAPTER>
</BOOK>

What I want is to collect the attributes of "CHAPTER". The goal is to get

Chapter={"Chapter 1";"Chapter 2","Chapter 3"};

Current I use tradition method,

XmlDocument xdoc = new XmlDocument();
xdoc.Load(@"C:\books.xml"); //load the xml file into our document
XmlNodeList nodes = xdoc.SelectNodes(@"//BOOK/CHAPTER[@cnumber='" + chap
string sentences = "";
foreach(XmlNode node in nodes) {
   sentences += node.InnerText + "; ";
}

but I want to use XMLReader because the XML file is big, I don't want to load it in memory.

Thanks for help.

Have you tried writing any code againt the XMLReader yet?

bluevector
– bluevector

2012-07-05 12:53:56 +00:00
Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 12:53 — bluevector
– bluevector, Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 12:53
Not yet, I am not strong on it.

user1108948
– user1108948

2012-07-05 12:55:57 +00:00
Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 12:55 — user1108948
– user1108948, Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 12:55

Bjørn Thomsen · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-05 13:03:36Z

1

Well basicly you can do like this:

        var chapters = new List<string>();
        using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(xmlString)))
        {
            reader.ReadToFollowing("CHAPTER");
            reader.MoveToFirstAttribute();
            string chapterNumber = reader.Value;
            chapters.Add("Chapter " + chapterNumber);
        }

where the xmlString is your xml.

This will find the first chapter and get the attribute from it and add it to a list of chapters.

answered Jul 5, 2012 at 13:03

Bjørn Thomsen

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3 Comments

user1108948 Over a year ago

the xmlString is MY xml, but is it big. Say 20MB. Can we do in this way?

Steven Doggart Over a year ago

XmlReader.Create also has an overload that can take any Stream object. That is what you will want to do. Create a stream which will read from the XML source, then pass that stream to the Create method instead of a new StringReader (e.g. XmlReader.Create(myStream)).

user1108948 Over a year ago

I meant that does xmlString refer to the entire xml file here?

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