Reading from XML specified by attribute

Question

I have the following XML file:

<Categories>
<Category name="TopDown">
    <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png</Path>
    <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Blu-Ray.png</Path>
    <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png</Path>
    <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png</Path>
    <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png</Path>
    <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png</Path>  
</Category>
<Category name="SideScroll">
    <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/SideScroll/MediaMonkey.png</Path>
    <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/SideScroll/Miro.png</Path>
    <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/SideScroll/QuickTime.png</Path>
    <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/SideScroll/VLC.png</Path>
    <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/SideScroll/WinAmp.png</Path>
</Category>

In my c# code, I have a function that gets a string that represents the Category "name" attribute, and if that string equals to that attribute I'd like to get all the text between the "Path" tags. For Instance, if the function gets a string parameter that equals "TopDown" the output would be :

http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png
    http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Blu-Ray.png
    http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png
    http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png
    http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png
    http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png

Thank you.

mnsr · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-13 00:23:56Z

1

You can do this with LINQ To XML:

var xdoc = @"<Categories>
    <Category name='TopDown'>
        <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png</Path>
        <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Blu-Ray.png</Path>
        <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png</Path>
        <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png</Path>
        <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png</Path>
        <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/TopDown/Divx.png</Path>
    </Category>
    <Category name='SideScroll'>
        <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/SideScroll/MediaMonkey.png</Path>
        <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/SideScroll/Miro.png</Path>
        <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/SideScroll/QuickTime.png</Path>
        <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/SideScroll/VLC.png</Path>
        <Path>http://localhost:8080/images/SideScroll/WinAmp.png</Path>
    </Category>
</Categories>";

var paths = XDocument.Parse(xdoc).Descendants("Category")
        .Where(w => (string)w.Attribute("name") == "TopDown")
        .Select(s => s.Elements("Path").Select (x => (string)x)).ToList();


foreach (var x in paths)
    Console.WriteLine(x);

You can copy paste that into linqpad or visual studio and it'll run.

edited Jul 13, 2012 at 0:23

answered Jul 13, 2012 at 0:04

mnsr

12.4k4 gold badges55 silver badges80 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

7 Comments

idish Over a year ago

Thank you very much, though I don't really understand Linq and there's some problem with that code, could you please test it? it has a compile error. "An object Reference is required for the non-static field

mnsr Over a year ago

What version of .NET are you using? XmlDocument and XDocument are 2 different things.

mnsr Over a year ago

up the top of your code file, make sure you have: using System.Xml.Linq;

idish Over a year ago

OK I added that, now there's the following error: Error 2 Cannot implicitly convert type 'System.Collections.Generic.List<System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<string>>' to 'System.Collections.Generic.List<string>' C:\Users\bezeq\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\ConsoleApplication7\ConsoleApplication7\Program.cs 50 21 ConsoleApplication7

idish Over a year ago

Oh I just saw that you edited your code, it is not possible to load the xml document?

|

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Reading from XML specified by attribute

1 Answer 1

7 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

7 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related