how do I parse xml into a tree of objects using linq only?

Question

I'm trying to parse xml into a hierachy of objects and I'm not sure how to recurse the hierachy properly. I do have a rough solution (not a good one) which is the call to GetChild which parses an XElement and returns a collection. I'm hoping someone knows how to achieve this in a pure linq expression ie. to populate Parent-Child-Item relationship into a List without a call inline to functions like GetChild()

Thanks

var element = XElement.Parse(@"<Root RegisterVersion='1.0' xmlns='http://www.test.com.au/docs/schemas' xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xsi:schemaLocation='http://www.test.com/docs/schemas/spin/surcharge http://www.test.com/docs/schemas/test.xsd'>
                            <Parent id='1' name='parent1'>
                                <Child id='1' name='child1'>
                                    <Item id='1' name='someitem'></Item>
                                </Child>
                            </Parent>
                            <Parent id='2' name='parent2'>
                                <Child id='2' name='child2'>
                                    <Item id='2' name='someotheritem'></Item>
                                </Child>
                            </Parent>
                            </Root>
                            ");

XNamespace ns = element.Name.Namespace;

var list =
 from compileItem in element.Elements (ns + "Parent") 
 select new Parent
 {
    Id = compileItem.Attribute("id").Value.ToString(),
    Name = compileItem.Attribute("name").Value.ToString(),
    children = GetChild(compileItem)
            // this call here I'd like to replace with another linq select
 };

 public List<Child> GetChild(XElement frag)
 {
           //etc 
 }
 public List<Item> GetItem(XElement frag)
 { 
        //etc
 }

Raphaël Althaus · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-07 12:34:25Z

Little console app.Honestly, it's much more readable with functions.

public class Parent
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public List<Child> Childrens { get; set; }
    }

    public class Child
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public List<Item> Items { get; set; }
    }
    public class Item
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
    }

    internal class Program
    {
        private class ADSetupInformation
        {
            public static void Main()
            {

                var element =
                    XElement.Parse(
                        @"<Root RegisterVersion='1.0' xmlns='http://www.test.com.au/docs/schemas' xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xsi:schemaLocation='http://www.test.com/docs/schemas/spin/surcharge http://www.test.com/docs/schemas/test.xsd'>
                            <Parent id='1' name='parent1'>
                                <Child id='1' name='child1'>
                                    <Item id='1' name='someitem'></Item>
                                </Child>
                            </Parent>
                            <Parent id='2' name='parent2'>
                                <Child id='2' name='child2'>
                                    <Item id='2' name='someotheritem'></Item>
                                </Child>
                            </Parent>
                            </Root>
                            ");

                XNamespace ns = element.Name.Namespace;


var list =
                    element.Elements(ns + "Parent")
                        .Select(compileItem => new Parent
                                                   {
                                                       Id = Convert.ToInt32(compileItem.Attribute("id").Value),
                                                       Name = compileItem.Attribute("name").Value,
                                                       Childrens = compileItem.Elements(ns + "Child")
                                                           .Select(child => new Child
                                                                                {
                                                                                    Id = Convert.ToInt32(child.Attribute("id").Value),
                                                                                    Name = child.Attribute("name").Value,
                                                                                    Items = child.Elements(ns + "Item")
                                                                                        .Select(xe => new Item()
                                                                                                          {
                                                                                                              Id = Convert.ToInt32(xe.Attribute("id").Value),
                                                                                                              Name = xe.Attribute("name").Value,
                                                                                                          }).ToList()
                                                                                }).ToList()                             
                                                   });

Thanks for this. I think you might be right about readability too, still its good to know how.

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