Returning Descendants of a xml node as a List<string> using LINQ or XPATH

Question

I have a xml file like this

<Document>
   <Tests>
       <Test>
          <Name>A</Name>
          <Type>Like A</Type>
          <Members>
               <Member>1</Member>
               <Member>2</Member>
               <Member>3</Member>
          </Members>
       </Test>
       <Test>
          <Name>B</Name>
          <Type>Like B</Type>
          <Members>
               <Member>4</Member>
               <Member>5</Member>
               <Member>6</Member>
          </Members>
       </Test>
    </Tests>
</Document>

Now I made a class to hold data for each Test nodes:

public class TestData
{
public string Name {get;set;}
public string Type {get;set;}

public List<string> Members = new List<string>();

public AddMembers(List<string> members)
{
Members.AddRange(members);
}
}

Now I am trying to use xpath to fill my TestData class, but I have problem adding members to the List I have. I am trying to use LINQ but I cant do it yet :(

   public List<TestClass> GetTests()
    {
        List<TestClass> tests = new List<TestClass>();
        TestClass test;

        XPathNodeIterator it = nav.Select("/Document/Tests/Test");

        foreach (XPathNavigator val in it)
        {
            test= new TestClass();
            test.Name = val.SelectSingleNode(nav.Compile("Name")).Value;
            test.Type = val.SelectSingleNode(nav.Compile("Type")).Value;
            test.AddMembers(); //How can I return all the member nodes in a list?

            tests.Add(test);
        }


        return tests ;
    }

Jon Skeet · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-05 09:20:50Z

3

It's not clear why you're using XPathNodeIterator to start with, to be honest. If you can use LINQ to XML for this, it's really simple:

var list =  doc.Descendants("Test")
               .Select(x => TestClass.FromXElement(x))
               .ToList();

Where TestClass.FromXElement is something like:

public static TestClass FromXElement(XElement element)
{
    string name = (string) element.Element("Name");
    string type  = (string) element.Element("Type");
    List<string> members = element.Descendants("Member")
                                  .Select(x => x.Value)
                                  .ToList();
    return new TestClass(name, type, members);
}

(You don't have to use Descendants if you're rather control the hierarchy more strictly. For example, in TestClass.FromXElement you could use element.Element("Members").Elements("Member")

answered Dec 5, 2011 at 9:20

Jon Skeet

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1 Comment

Dumbo Over a year ago

Thanks Jon, Although your answer is nice and complete it is a bit hard for me to get it to work. At the moment I am scratching my head to figure out how to implement your answer, it is almost done!

Dimitre Novatchev · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-05 14:34:55Z

1

Try this:

IEnumerable<string> members =
  from m in ((IEnumerable<XmlNode>)((IHasXmlNode)val).GetNode()
                                                .SelectNodes("Members/Member"))
    select m.Value;

answered Dec 5, 2011 at 14:34

Dimitre Novatchev

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