Best way to create entity objects from xml using LINQ

Question

I have following code for creating a list of objects from source XML. I can get the requires result in var query variable. What is the best way to create a List<Video> from this result?

Note: Prefer Method Chaining approach if possible.

CODE

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string xmlStringInput = @"<videoShop>
                                  <video title=""video1"" path=""videos\video1.wma""><Director>Speilberg</Director></video>
                                  <video title=""video2"" path=""videos\video2.wma""/>
                                </videoShop>";

        XDocument myDoc = XDocument.Parse(xmlStringInput);


        var videoElements = (from video in myDoc.Descendants("video") select video).ToList();
        foreach (var videoEle in videoElements)
        {
            //System.Xml.XPath namespace for XPathSelectElement
            var directorName = videoEle.XPathSelectElement(@"Director");
        }


        var query = from video in myDoc.Descendants("video")
                    select new
                    {
                        MyTitle = video.Attribute("title").Value,
                        MyPath = video.Attribute("path").Value
                    };

        //IEnumerable<XElement> elements = (IEnumerable<XElement>)query;
        //List<Video> videoLibrary = (List<Video>)query.ToList<Video>();

        Console.WriteLine(query);
        Console.ReadLine();

    }

}

Entity

 public class Video
 {
     public string MyTitle { get; set; }
     public string MyPath { get; set; }
 }

REFERENCE:

MarcinJuraszek · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-13 09:13:25Z

6

var query = from vin myDoc.Descendants("video")
            select new Video
            {
                MyTitle = (string)v.Attribute("title"),
                MyPath = (string)v.Attribute("path")
            };

// var means List<Video> here
var results = query.ToList();

Or without query variable:

// var means List<Video> here
var results = (from vin myDoc.Descendants("video")
               select new Video
               {
                   MyTitle = (string)v.Attribute("title"),
                   MyPath = (string)v.Attribute("path")
               }).ToList();

Method-based query:

var results = myDoc.Descendants("video")
                   .Select(v => new Video()
                                {
                                    MyTitle = (string)v.Attribute("title"),
                                    MyPath = (string)v.Attribute("path")
                                 }).ToList();

edited Mar 13, 2013 at 9:13

answered Mar 13, 2013 at 8:56

MarcinJuraszek

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1 Comment

MarcinJuraszek Over a year ago

This is done by compiler. It detects, that var results is actually List<Video>

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