Get single XML Attribute Value

Question

Given the following XML -

<Response>
  <Item name="ItemA" />
</Response>

How do I get the value of the name attribute?

I have tried several ways with no luck, here was the last try- (Note that writing the contents of 'xml' to the console displayed the above XML)

Dim doc As XDocument = XDocument.Load(xml)
Dim result = From x In doc.Descendants("Item") Select x.Attribute("Name").Value
Console.WriteLine(result)

Results in output of: "System.Linq.Enumerable.WhereSelectEnumerableIterator[Of System.Xml.Linq.XElement, String]"

Thanks,

Linq is case sensitive. You have a capital 'N' instead of a small 'n'. — jdweng
– jdweng, Commented May 14, 2017 at 8:33

har07 · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-14 05:40:17Z

2

For that exact XML structure you can do as follows :

Dim result =  doc.Root.Element("Item").Attribute("name").Value

Notice that Element() returns single child element of a given name.

In case there is XML namespace involved, as you mentioned in the comment below, you need to use a combination of XNamespace and the element's local-name to reference Item element :

Dim path As XNamespace = "path"
Dim result = doc.Root.Element(path+"Item").Attribute("name").Value

edited May 14, 2017 at 5:40

answered May 14, 2017 at 4:58

har07

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5 Comments

Dan Over a year ago

An unhandled exception of type 'System.NullReferenceException' occurred Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

har07 Over a year ago

@Dan ah the attribute is in all-lower-case 'name', not 'Name'

Dan Over a year ago

Sorry I didn't catch that. It is working. What change would need made if a namespace were added? <Response xmlns="path">

har07 Over a year ago

@Dan I added solution to that in the answer

Dan Over a year ago

Thanks for confirming that for me. All is working and your help is greatly appreciated!

dbasnett · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-14 10:42:35Z

1

I prefer XElement, a lot less typing.

    Dim xe As XElement
    ' to load from a file
    ' Dim yourpath As String = "your path here"
    ' Dim xe As XElement = XElement.Load(yourpath)

    ' for testing
    xe = <Response>
             <Item name="ItemA"/>
         </Response>

    Dim result As String = xe.<Item>.@name '<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< answer

answered May 14, 2017 at 10:42

dbasnett

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1 Comment

dbasnett Over a year ago

@Dan - take a look at using XElement

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