Cannot parse XML with xmlns value

Question

I receive an XML file which has on the root node a xmlns namespace assigned:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Message xmlns="http://www.myAddress.com/DataRequest/message/">
  <Date>2017/01/01</Date>
</Message>

I do not know how to retrive the Date element using XPath, I tried

  var root = xDocument.Root;
  var dateElement = root.XPathSelectElement("/Message/Date");

If I remove the namespace from the root xml, then I can retrieve the value using "/Message/Date".

I tried to add xmlns to a XmlNamespaceManager, but I get this error:

Prefix "xmlns" is reserved for use by XML.

How can I get the value?

Possible duplicate of Using XPath and VB.NET to parse XML containing namespsaces — DWRoelands
– DWRoelands, Commented Apr 6, 2017 at 14:22

Sergey Berezovskiy · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-06 13:46:48Z

7

You should use namespace when you specify element's name. Default namespace is easy to get with XElement.GetDefaultNamespace() method:

var ns = root.GetDefaultNamespace();
var dateElement = (DateTime)root.Element(ns + "Date");

If you want to use XPath:

XmlNamespaceManager manager = new XmlNamespaceManager(new NameTable());
manager.AddNamespace("ns", root.GetDefaultNamespace().ToString());
var dateElement = (DateTime)root.XPathSelectElement("/ns:Message/ns:Date", manager);

edited Apr 6, 2017 at 13:46

answered Apr 6, 2017 at 13:39

Sergey Berezovskiy

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3 Comments

Angela Over a year ago

I doesn't work and I do not understand why it should work. There are no nodes in XML file defined with the namespace prefix I add to XmlNamespaceManager.

Sergey Berezovskiy Over a year ago

@Angela it works and I don't understand why it shouldn't work. Have you tried running this code?

Palle Due Over a year ago

I just tried it out in LinqPad and can confirm that both Sergey's suggestions work.

user4573148 · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-06 13:41:40Z

0

I would suggest using LINQ.

Here is a link to the code example:https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt693115.aspx

here is the code:

XElement root = XElement.Load("Message.xml");  
IEnumerable<XElement> dateNode=  
    from el in root.Elements("Date")   
    select el;  
foreach (XElement el in dateNode)  
    Console.WriteLine(el);

answered Apr 6, 2017 at 13:41

user4573148

2 Comments

Palle Due Over a year ago

You still need to take care of the namespace. So add var ns = root.GetDefaultNamespace(); and from el in root.Elements(ns+"Date")

user4573148 Over a year ago

this is a duplicate question, stackoverflow.com/questions/4857172/…. @PalleDue good call

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