Reading an .XML file in C#

Question

I have been trying for the past few hours, with little to no success, to read from a .xml file.

I tried:

XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create("ChampionList.xml");

        reader.ReadToFollowing("Name");
        reader.MoveToFirstAttribute();
        string nume = reader.Value;
        MessageBox.Show(nume);

My xml looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<main>
  <Champion>
    <Name>Aatrox</Name>
    <Counter>Soraka</Counter>
  </Champion>
  <Champion>    
    <Name>Ahri</Name>
    <Counter>Diana</Counter>    
  </Champion>
</main>

I would like to read the name and the counter whenever I press the button. Each time a new one (1st button press - 1st champ and so on).

Can someone help me? Also, a bit of an explanation of the code would be nice, if there are many loops and stuff, I still have much to learn.

Why use XmlReader? Try LINQ to XML (XDocument).

John Saunders
– John Saunders

2013-06-30 19:43:58 +00:00
Commented Jun 30, 2013 at 19:43 — John Saunders
– John Saunders, Commented Jun 30, 2013 at 19:43

ChaseMedallion · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-30 19:49:42Z

1

You might find it easier to work with a higher-level interface than XmlReader. For example, you could do this in Linq to XML as follows:

// read in the entire document
var document = XDocument.Load("ChampionsList.xml");

// parse out the relevant information
// start with all "Champion" nodes
var champs = documents.Descendants("Champion")
    // for each one, select name as the value of the child element Name node
    // and counter as the value of the child element Counter node
    .Select(e => new { name = e.Element("Name").Value, counter = e.Element("Counter").Value });

// now champs is a list of C# objects with properties name and value

foreach (var champ in champs) {
    // do something with champ (e. g. MessageBox.Show)
}

edited Jun 30, 2013 at 19:49

answered Jun 30, 2013 at 19:40

ChaseMedallion

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3 Comments

Chuck Savage Over a year ago

change Descendants("Name").Single() to Element("Name") and I'll up-vote, and to the "Counter" as well.

Cristi Over a year ago

Thanks a lot, it worked :) What's the difference between Descendants().Single() and Element()?

ChaseMedallion Over a year ago

@user2491551: in this case, there is none (although Element() should be slightly faster). In general, Descendants() will include all elements inside the parent (including deeply nested ones), while Element() only looks one level down.

StilesCrisis · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-30 19:31:27Z

1

To test XML validity, I've found it's pretty easy to set the file's extension to .XML and then drop it onto an Internet Explorer window. Internet Explorer has a pretty good XML viewer built-in, and it will let you know if there are errors.

(EDIT: removed specific suggestion about presented XML being invalid--this appears to have been caused by markup issues.)

edited Jun 30, 2013 at 19:31

answered Jun 30, 2013 at 19:25

StilesCrisis

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3 Comments

rene Over a year ago

Are you sure about your claim?

StilesCrisis Over a year ago

The XML looked different when I answered. This answer is not as useful now other than the tip of checking validity in Internet Explorer.

rene Over a year ago

I only made sure the root tag showed up... I didn't add or remove any tags... your answer made me start editing the question...

rene · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-30 19:40:27Z

1

Use the ReadElementContentAsString to get the contents of an element

XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create("ChampionList.xml");

reader.ReadToFollowing("Name"); // read until element named Name
string nume = reader.ReadElementContentAsString(); // read its content
MessageBox.Show(nume);

answered Jun 30, 2013 at 19:40

rene

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Comments

Alyafey · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-30 19:53:11Z

why don't you read them to list once and when ever button pressed just take out from your list. XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader("yourfile.xml");

            string elementName = "";

            List<string[]> Champion = new List<string[]>();
            string name = "";            

            while (reader.Read())  // go throw the xml file
            {

                if (reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element) //get element from xml file 
                {

                    elementName = reader.Name;
                }
                else
                {

                    if ((reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Text) && (reader.HasValue)) //fet the value of element
                    {
                        switch (elementName) // switch on element name weather Name or Counter
                        {
                            case "Name":
                                name = reader.Value;
                                break;
                            case "Counter":
                                string[] value = new string[] { name, reader.Value }; //store result to list of array of string
                                Champion.Add(value);
                                break;

                        }
                    }
                }
            }

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