Reading XML data using LINQ, multiple elements with the same name

Question

Visual Studio 2010, Silverlight 4, and C#. I have the following data stored in an XML file:

<root>
      <element>TextHere</element>
      <element>TextHere</element>
      <element>TextHere</element>
</root>

This is my current code.

XDocument xmlDoc = XDocument.Load("XMLDocument.xml");
var ElementsList = from Elements in xmlDoc.Descendants("root")
                   select new
                   {
                       ElementContent = Elements.Element("Element").Value,
                   };

This code only puts the very first element in the list, leaving all of the others out. How can I rewrite this code so that it will capture ALL of the elements that are named "element" in the XML file?

BrokenGlass · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-16 03:33:47Z

5

This would do it:

XDocument xmlDoc = XDocument.Load("XMLDocument.xml");
var ElementsList = from Elements in xmlDoc.Descendants("element")
                   select new
                   {
                       ElementContent = Elements.Value
                   };

Or a little more succinct in dot notation:

var ElementsList = xmlDoc.Descendants("element")
                         .Select(x => new { ElementContent = x.Value });

Note however that you only have an enumeration of elements after this, if you want a list (as your variable name suggests) you can add a .ToList() after the Select:

var ElementsList = xmlDoc.Descendants("element")
                         .Select(x => new { ElementContent = x.Value })
                         .ToList();

This will list will contain 3 elements (based on your example XML. ) of an anonymous type that has a ElementContent property. If you do not need that property (and I would think you don't) this is a simplified version that just returns a list of string:

var ElementsList = xmlDoc.Descendants("element")
                         .Select(x => x.Value)
                         .ToList();

edited Feb 16, 2011 at 3:33

answered Feb 16, 2011 at 3:26

BrokenGlass

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2 Comments

BCXtreme Over a year ago

Well, that succeeded in pulling in all of the elements, however it placed them all in one string with no apparent way of separating them. I need the contents of each element to be a separate item in the list. Is this possible?

BrokenGlass Over a year ago

@BCXTreme that is not the case, the content of each element will be a separate entry in the enumeration, you might just want the list, I will edit that in.

Thiem Nguyen · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-25 15:52:01Z

2

This would do it-

 XDocument xmlDoc = XDocument.Load("XMLDocument.xml");
 var ElementsList = from Elements in xmlDoc.Descendants("root")
 select new
 {
   Element1 = (string)Elements.Element("element"),
   Element2 = Elements.Element("element").ElementsAfterSelf("element").First().Value,
   Element3 = Elements.Element("element").ElementsAfterSelf("element").ElementAt(1).Value,
 };

edited Jun 25, 2012 at 15:52

Thiem Nguyen

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answered Jun 25, 2012 at 15:37

Kamran

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