How to sort XML document in linq by an attribute value?

Question

I've tried to sort my xml file by attribute's value with no luck.

data.Descendants("person").OrderBy(x => x.Attribute("id").Value);

data contains:

<persons>
  <person id="1">
    <name>Abra</name>
    <age>25</age>
  </person>
  <person id="2">
    <name>Cadabra</name>
    <age>29</age>
  </person>
  <person id="4">
    <name>Hokus</name>
    <age>40</age>
  </person>
  <person id="3">
    <name>Pokus</name>
    <age>30</age>
  </person>
</persons>

Answer given here does not work for me.

I'm using MVS 2010 for Windows Phone 7.

I would be grateful for any help.

--

Update

Thank You for quick responses!

juharr asked a good question... i was expecting that OrderBy would modify data. Now i know i was wrong.

I want to modify data and i've done as follows (thanks Matt Lacey):

var people = data.Elements("person").OrderBy(p => (string)p.Attribute("id"));

    data.Descendants("person").Remove();
    data.Element("persons").Add(people);

but i still got nothing. Data is empty, it contains only <persons />

I wonder what's wrong now.

I manage to solve my problem by using this code:

    XDocument datatemp = new XDocument(data);

    var people = datatemp.Descendants("person").OrderBy(x => (int)int.Parse(x.Attribute("id").Value));

    data.Descendants("person").Remove();
    data.Element("persons").Add(people);

Is any other way (more elegant) to modify data using OrderBy instead of creating datatemp?

Are you capturing the result of the OrderBy or are you expecting it to modify data? — juharr
– juharr, Commented Jan 5, 2011 at 13:24
I know this is an ancient question. But you avoid the datatemp variable by adding .ToList() or .ToArray() as Dima said. stuff.OrderBy(...).ToList() prevents your IEnumerable to be empty when adding to persons. — Mixxiphoid
– Mixxiphoid, Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 16:48

Matt Lacey · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-05 13:27:13Z

1

Based on the question you linked to, this works:

var people = from p in data.Elements("person")
             orderby (string)p.Attribute("id")
             select p;

or

var people = data.Elements("person").OrderBy(p => (string)p.Attribute("id"));

(tested on a phone to confirm too.)

answered Jan 5, 2011 at 13:27

Matt Lacey

65.7k12 gold badges94 silver badges145 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Sangram Nandkhile Over a year ago

this will be sorted by string.sort of int.sort?

joulesm · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-28 16:51:57Z

1

I hope this helps you

var people = data.Elements("person").OrderBy(p => (string)p.Attribute("id")).ToArray();

data.Descendants("person").Remove();
data.Element("persons").Add(people);

Don't forget to use the ToArray() method for your people.

edited Nov 28, 2012 at 16:51

joulesm

6421 gold badge6 silver badges28 bronze badges

answered Feb 26, 2011 at 16:37

Dima

111 bronze badge

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to sort XML document in linq by an attribute value?

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related