parsing xml string and getting the value out

Question

I need to write the code in C#.

I get the following string containing xml elements.

**"\n                        <iqn:CDFID xmlns:iqn=\"ns:iqn:cwm:1.0\">Clearance Type</iqn:CDFID>\n                        <iqn:CDFName xmlns:iqn=\"ns:iqn:cwm:1.0\">Clearance Type</iqn:CDFName>\n                        <iqn:CDFValue xmlns:iqn=\"ns:iqn:cwm:1.0\">THE ACTUAL VALUE</iqn:CDFValue>\n                     "**

The elements are CDFID CDFName CDFValue

The above 3 elements could be in any order inside the string. How do I identify the CDFValue xml element and extract the value "THE ACTUAL VALUE" out.

How can I treat the string in an xml manner and get the value of the desired element out.

Look for [XDocument.Parse()](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.linq.xdocument.parse(v=vs.110).aspx) — Yair Nevet, Jan 09 '15 at 23:30
I tried using it but it complains about more than 1 root elements. I am unable to capture the root element of those 3 elements. — dotnet-practitioner, Jan 09 '15 at 23:39

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 09 '15 at 23:39

There're several things to consider:

The string contains multiple elements, which is not a valid XML document, you need to either parse it as document fragment, or add a root element by yourself.
The element has namespace in it, you need to create namespace to access the node.

I prefer to use XDocument over XmlDocument. Here's the sample code to get the actual value:

var validXml = "<root>" + value + "</root>";
var doc = XDocument.Parse(validXml);

var ns = XNamespace.Get("ns:iqn:cwm:1.0");
Console.WriteLine(doc.Root.Element(ns.GetName("CDFValue")).Value);

Prints out "THE ACTUAL VALUE"

parsing xml string and getting the value out

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