what does the error "System.Xml.Linq.XDocument' does not contain a def" mean?

Question

I'm trying to write a code to convert a xml file into a datatable. I'm getting this below error

System.Xml.Linq.XDocument' does not contain a definition for 'DocumentNode' and no extension method 'DocumentNode' accepting a first argument of type 'System.Xml.Linq.XDocument' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

What am I missing?

Below is my code

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml.XPath;

using System.Xml.Linq;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {



            var xdoc = System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Load(filename);
            System.Xml.XmlElement xelRoot = xdoc.DocumentElement;
            System.Xml.XmlNodeList xList = xelRoot.SelectNodes("/rulebase/security/rules/entry");

            int x = 0;
            int y = 0;
            string[] ColumnArray = new string[25];
            string[] RowArray = new string[25];


            foreach (System.Xml.XmlNode pNode in xList)
            {



                if (pNode.ChildNodes.Count = 0)
                {

                }
                else
                {
                    string val1 = "";
                    string nodeVal = "";

                    string nodeName = pNode.name;
                    foreach (System.Xml.XmlNode childNode in pNode.ChildNodes)
                    {
                        val1 = val1 + childNode.value + ", ";
                    }
                    val1 = val1 + " ,";
                    nodeVal = val1.substring(0, val1.length - 3);

                    ColumnArray[x] = nodeName;
                    RowArray[y] = nodeVal;
                    x++;
                    y++;

                }
            }

            System.Data.DataTable table1 = new System.Data.DataTable("entry");

            foreach (string s in ColumnArray)
            {
                table1.Columns.Add(s);
            }

            System.Data.DataRow row;
            row = table1.LoadDataRow(RowArray, true);
        }

    }
}

You are mixing the X* and Xml* families of classes. That won't work. .NET has (at least) 2 distinct APIs for dealing with Xml, pick one. My choice would be the Linq based one. — H H, Jun 22 '15 at 21:34

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

(Initially I didn't understand the comment under the question, so here some details)

The older System.Xml.XmlDocument has DocumentElement (this is being used in the code ... I don't know where the DocumentNode mentioned in the question comes from).

System.Xml.Linq.XDocument

is the newer LINQ to XML class
which does not have DocumentElement.
e.g. use xdoc.Root.Name to get the name of the root element

For more info XMlDocument vs XDocument

what does the error "System.Xml.Linq.XDocument' does not contain a def" mean?

1 Answers1