How to display XML data using Datagridview in C#

Question

I am having trouble displaying the XML on my c# WinForm.

My XML file looks like this:

<HotelDatabase>
    <Hotel Name="ABC" Location="XYZ">
        <Room Type="Single" Count="5" Price="2000" />
        <Room Type="Superior" Count="3" Price="4000" />
    </Hotel>
    <Hotel Name="DEF" Location="LMN">
        <Room Type="Single" Count="5" Price="2000" />
        <Room Type="Superior" Count="3" Price="4000" />
    </Hotel>
</HotelDatabase>

My Code for displaying the data in DataGridView looks like this:

var dataSet = new DataSet();
dataSet.ReadXml(Properties.Settings.Default.HotelDB);
dataGridViewHotelList.DataSource = dataSet.Tables[0];

When I run this code, only Name and Location is displayed. I want all the attributes in the Hotel element and its child element to be displayed in a datagridview.

@Pazi01 Yes I mean all the attributes in the hotel elements and as well as its child attributes — Aniq
– Aniq, Commented Feb 25, 2016 at 16:11

Reza Aghaei · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-25 16:58:51Z

4

You are loading XML data to grid correctly, but you should know when you bind DataGridView to a DataTable it shows columns of the data table not the columns of related tables.
You can not show a relation in a single DataGridView. To show child items of a hotel, you can use another DataGridView in the same form to show child items of hotel and bind the second grid to rooms of a hotel:

var ds = new DataSet();
ds.ReadXml("path to xml file");
dataGridView1.DataSource = ds.Tables["Hotel"]; //Tables[0]
dataGridView2.DataSource = ds.Tables["Hotel"]; //Tables[0]
dataGridView2.DataMember = "Hotel_Room"; //ds.Tables[0].ChildRelations[0].RelationName;

This way you will have a master-detail relation between your data grids. By click on each hotel row, you will see its rooms.

You also have some other options, for example:

You can create a DataGridViewButtonColumn to the grid that opens a form which shows a grid containing rooms of selected hotel.
You can use a DataGrid control which can show a link to child items of a row. To do so, it's enough to set hotels as data source of data grid control: this.dataGrid1.DataSource = ds.Tables["Hotel"];

edited Feb 25, 2016 at 16:58

answered Feb 25, 2016 at 16:38

Reza Aghaei

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2 Comments

Aniq Over a year ago

what does this line do dataGridView2.DataMember = "Hotel_Room";

Reza Aghaei Over a year ago

It makes the datagridview use that relation to find child rooms of current hotel. To learn more take a look at Walkthrough: Creating a Master/Detail Form Using Two Windows Forms DataGridView Controls

Pseudonym · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-25 16:16:09Z

You can convert the XML to a datatable and the just plug it in to your gridview with DataTable.ReadXML(), here is example code from MSDN:

private static void DemonstrateReadWriteXMLDocumentWithString()
{
    DataTable table = CreateTestTable("XmlDemo");
    PrintValues(table, "Original table");

    string fileName = "C:\\TestData.xml";
    table.WriteXml(fileName, XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema);

    DataTable newTable = new DataTable();
    newTable.ReadXml(fileName);

    // Print out values in the table.
    PrintValues(newTable, "New table");
}

private static DataTable CreateTestTable(string tableName)
{
    // Create a test DataTable with two columns and a few rows.
    DataTable table = new DataTable(tableName);
    DataColumn column = new DataColumn("id", typeof(System.Int32));
    column.AutoIncrement = true;
    table.Columns.Add(column);

    column = new DataColumn("item", typeof(System.String));
    table.Columns.Add(column);

    // Add ten rows.
    DataRow row;
    for (int i = 0; i <= 9; i++)
    {
        row = table.NewRow();
        row["item"] = "item " + i;
        table.Rows.Add(row);
    }

    table.AcceptChanges();
    return table;
}

private static void PrintValues(DataTable table, string label)
{
    Console.WriteLine(label);
    foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
    {
        foreach (DataColumn column in table.Columns)
        {
            Console.Write("\t{0}", row[column]);
        }
        Console.WriteLine();
    }
}

And if you need to know how to bind your datagridview to a datatable, here, is a link on how to do that.

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