Converting XML to a dynamic C# object

Question

I've used the following C# code to convert a string of JSON data to a dynamic object using the JSON.Net framework:

// Creates a dynamic .Net object representing the JSON data
var ProductDB = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<dynamic>(JsonData);

Once converted, I can access the elements directly using code like this:

// Variables to be used
string ProductID;
string ProductType;
int ProductQty;

// Loop through each of the products
foreach (dynamic product in ProductDB.products)
{
    ProductID = product.id;
    ProductType = product.type;
    ProductQty = product.qty;
}

Is there anything similar to this for working with XML data? I could just use JSON.net to convert my XML to JSON and then re-use the code above, but that feels like cheating.

Thanks.

I have found some good solutions available as per your requirement: 1. [Parse XML to dynamic object in C#](http://www.itdevspace.com/2012/07/parse-xml-to-dynamic-object-in-c.html) 2. [Creating a dynamic object from XML using ExpandoObject](http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/461677/Creating-a-dynamic-object-from-XML-using-ExpandoOb) 3. [Fluent XML Parsing Using C#'s Dynamic Type Part 1](http://blogs.captechconsulting.com/blog/kevin-hazzard/fluent-xml-parsing-using-cs-dynamic-type-part-1) 4. [Dynamic XML Reader with C# and .Net 4.0](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mcsuksoldev/archive/2010/02/04/dynamic — Furqan Safdar, Nov 01 '12 at 06:15

score 141 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 25 '19 at 19:45

141

XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(xmlData); //or XDocument.Load(path)
string jsonText = JsonConvert.SerializeXNode(doc);
dynamic dyn = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ExpandoObject>(jsonText);

I think "cheating" is the answer - the xml solutions are very long :)

edited Mar 25 '19 at 19:45

2b77bee6-5445-4c77-b1eb-4df3e5

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answered Oct 06 '16 at 17:35

HeatherD

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That's great! How would you access an attribute though? For example, after parsing a `.nuspec` file I should be able to navigate to the following `nuspec.package.dependencies.dependency.@version` but `@version` is not recognised. – Anton Georgiev Aug 28 '19 at 16:32
1

Anton, attributes are prefixed with an '@'. Also see https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/ConvertingJSONandXML.htm. I normally cast the ExpandoObject to a Dictionary. The attribute is accessible through that dictionary with the '@' key. – David Urting Jan 10 '20 at 11:11

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 07 '16 at 13:08

An alternative for future visitors, the one from ITDevSpace doesn't include attributes on elements with children.

public class XmlWrapper
{
    public static dynamic Convert(XElement parent)
    {
        dynamic output = new ExpandoObject();

        output.Name = parent.Name.LocalName;
        output.Value = parent.Value;

        output.HasAttributes = parent.HasAttributes;
        if (parent.HasAttributes)
        {
            output.Attributes = new List<KeyValuePair<string, string>>();
            foreach (XAttribute attr in parent.Attributes())
            {
                KeyValuePair<string, string> temp = new KeyValuePair<string, string>(attr.Name.LocalName, attr.Value);
                output.Attributes.Add(temp);
            }
        }

        output.HasElements = parent.HasElements;
        if (parent.HasElements)
        {
            output.Elements = new List<dynamic>();
            foreach (XElement element in parent.Elements())
            {
                dynamic temp = Convert(element);
                output.Elements.Add(temp);
            }
        }

        return output;
    }
}

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered May 01 '18 at 15:58

Cinchoo ETL - an open source library available to parse xml into dynamic object

using (var p = ChoXmlReader.LoadText(xml).WithXPath("/"))
{
    foreach (dynamic rec in p)
        Console.WriteLine(rec.Dump());
}

Checkout CodeProject article for some additional help.

Disclaimer: I'm the author of this library.

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 18 '14 at 17:45

From @FSX's answer I have successfully used the solution from "Parse XML to dynamic object in C#":

public class XmlToDynamic
{
    public static void Parse(dynamic parent, XElement node)
    {
        if (node.HasElements)
        {
            if (node.Elements(node.Elements().First().Name.LocalName).Count() > 1)
            {
                //list
                var item = new ExpandoObject();
                var list = new List<dynamic>();
                foreach (var element in node.Elements())
                {                        
                    Parse(list, element);                        
                }

                AddProperty(item, node.Elements().First().Name.LocalName, list);
                AddProperty(parent, node.Name.ToString(), item);
            }
            else
            {
                var item = new ExpandoObject();

                foreach (var attribute in node.Attributes())
                {
                    AddProperty(item, attribute.Name.ToString(), attribute.Value.Trim());
                }

                //element
                foreach (var element in node.Elements())
                {
                    Parse(item, element);
                }

                AddProperty(parent, node.Name.ToString(), item);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            AddProperty(parent, node.Name.ToString(), node.Value.Trim());
        }
    }

    private static void AddProperty(dynamic parent, string name, object value)
    {
        if (parent is List<dynamic>)
        {
            (parent as List<dynamic>).Add(value);
        }
        else
        {
            (parent as IDictionary<String, object>)[name] = value;
        }
    }
}

I have used this; it works very well providing dynamic names and values inside a dynamic object. — Rogério Silva, Mar 14 '17 at 13:58

Converting XML to a dynamic C# object

4 Answers4

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