Possible to sort an XML by attribute before turning it into an array?

Question

Here is my current code that gets the elements from the xml and puts it into an array. But it just puts it in the order it reads it (top to bottom)

using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Linq;

// XML Path
var doc = XDocument.Load("C:/Scripts/example.xml");

// Node
string[] picks = doc.Descendants("pick").Select(element => element.Value).ToArray();

I want to know if it is possible to sort the array by an attribute (in this case, "order") as I turn it into an array. The desired output being {Gragas, Draven, Ryze, Shen, Shyvanna, ...}

here's my xml:

<championSelect>
<blue>
  <pick order="1">Gragas</pick>
  <pick order="4">Shen</pick>
  <pick order="5">Shyvanna</pick>
  <pick order="8">Garen</pick>
  <pick order="9">Karthus</pick>
</blue>
<red>
  <pick order="2">Draven</pick>
  <pick order="3">Ryze</pick>
  <pick order="6">Ahri</pick>
  <pick order="7">Annie</pick>
  <pick order="10">Brand</pick>
</red>

I was playing with OrderBy() and OrderByDescending() with little luck

Turn it into an array then sort it. It makes a lot more sense to sort an array than it does to sort XML (which might be possible using some abstraction like LINQ to XML but isn't noramlly and doesn't make sense). — evanmcdonnal
– evanmcdonnal, Commented Jul 29, 2013 at 23:43
@evanmcdonnal turning it into an array first won't work here because the OP wants to sort on a value which won't be in the final array — JaredPar
– JaredPar, Commented Jul 29, 2013 at 23:52

JaredPar · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-29 23:53:53Z

3

Use the OrderBy extension method

string[] picks = doc
  .Descendants("pick")
  .OrderBy(element => Int32.Parse(element.GetAttribute("order").Value))
  .Select(element => element.Value)
  .ToArray();

edited Jul 29, 2013 at 23:53

answered Jul 29, 2013 at 23:46

JaredPar

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6 Comments

keyboardP Over a year ago

+1 but it should be OrderBy(element => Int32.Parse(element.Attribute("order").Value) I think.

JaredPar Over a year ago

@keyboardP i believe i'm correct. The GetAttribute method returns ` string` while GetAttributeNode returns a AttributeNode type. On that method I would need to call Value.

JaredPar Over a year ago

@keyboardP here is the MSDN page msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/acwfyhc7.aspx

keyboardP Over a year ago

element is of type XElement and not XmlElement as Descendants returns XElements.

JaredPar Over a year ago

@keyboardP ah yes you are correct. I was reading XmlDocument and not XDocument. I will update

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