Add a parent node to the child nodes in an XML

Question

I had a very simple problem but am short on time so would be really grateful if anyone can provide the quick answer. Basically I had an XML given below :

 <Root>
<Delhi>
    <Population>1000</Population>`enter code here`
</Delhi>
<Mumbai>
    <Population>1000</Population>
    <District>
        <Name>Colaba</Name>
    </District>
    <District>
        <Name>navi Mumbai</Name>
    </District>
    <District></District>
</Mumbai>
<Mumbai>
    <Population>1000</Population>
</Mumbai>
<Mumbai>
    <Population>1000</Population>
</Mumbai>
<Chennai>
    <Population>1000</Population>
    <District>
        <Name>Chan</Name>
    </District>
</Chennai>
<Kolkata>
    <Population>1000</Population>
</Kolkata>

I want to pass this XML to a method and want a response something like below:

<Root>
<Delhi>
    <Population>1000</Population>
</Delhi>
<Mumbai>
    <Mumbai>
        <Population>1000</Population>
        <District>
            <District>
                <Name>Colaba</Name>
            </District>
            <District>
                <Name>navi Mumbai</Name>
            </District>
            <District></District>
        </District>
    </Mumbai>
    <Mumbai>
        <Population>1000</Population>
    </Mumbai>
    <Mumbai>
        <Population>1000</Population>
    </Mumbai>
</Mumbai>
<Chennai>
    <Chennai>
        <Population>1000</Population>
        <District>
            <District>
                <Name>Chan</Name>
            </District>
        </District>
    </Chennai>
</Chennai>
<Kolkata>
    <Population>1000</Population>
</Kolkata>

So the logic is very simple : I want to iterate through the nodes of the Root Element and I check if my node is either Mumbai,District or Chennai. If it is, I enclose all the tags by that name inside a tag having the same name. The XML can have any level so I believe it needs to be done through recursion effectively.

Welcome to Stack Overflow. It's very hard to help you without knowing which language or XML API you're using - and you should show what you've already tried. Also, if you could show a shorter example, it would help to keep things simple. — Jon Skeet, Oct 16 '15 at 16:05
Convert it to a native array. Structure it properly, then convert it back to xml. Tip: you can use json encode and decode to convert to and from array. — I wrestled a bear once., Oct 16 '15 at 16:06
Be aware that if you say you are in a hurry, people are less likely to answer, because they think you're unlikely to give the answer proper consideration. — Michael Kay, Oct 16 '15 at 20:09
1. I am trying to do it in C#.2. @Pamblam - Unfortunately this is the structure we will receive. — user3512407, Oct 16 '15 at 21:27
Yea you mentioned that. Do you understand what "convert" means... good luck getting any help — I wrestled a bear once., Oct 16 '15 at 21:32
Used the AddNode code on following webpage lots of times : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28976601/recursion-parsing-xml-file-with-attributes-into-treeview-c-sharp — jdweng, Oct 16 '15 at 22:07

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 16 '15 at 23:55

Consider an XSLT solution which most general-purpose languages maintain libraries for including Perl, PHP, Python, VB, Java, and C# (among still others). As information, XSLT is declarative, special-purpose programming language (same type as SQL is but with databases) used specifically to transform, style, re-format, or re-structure XML documents.

Please note: this XSLT script transforms your XML but does not handle only copies the two extraneous Mumbai nodes which seem out of place with your document.

The XSLT uses the Muenchian Method to group the District items together.

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">  
  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:key name="MumbaiDistrict" match="Mumbai[1]" use="District" />
  <xsl:key name="ChennaiDistrict" match="Chennai" use="District" />

    <!-- Identity Transform -->
    <xsl:template match="@*|node()">
      <xsl:copy>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
      </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>   

    <xsl:template match="Mumbai[1]">
      <xsl:element name="Mumbai">
        <xsl:element name="Mumbai">        
            <xsl:copy-of select="Population"/>
            <xsl:element name="District">
              <xsl:for-each select="key('MumbaiDistrict', District)">          
                <xsl:copy-of select="District"/>          
             </xsl:for-each>
           </xsl:element>          
         </xsl:element>
      </xsl:element>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="Chennai">
      <xsl:element name="Chennai">
        <xsl:element name="Chennai">
           <xsl:copy-of select="Population"/>
           <xsl:element name="District">
             <xsl:for-each select="key('ChennaiDistrict', District)">          
              <xsl:copy-of select="District"/>          
             </xsl:for-each>
          </xsl:element>
        </xsl:element>
      </xsl:element>        
    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Output

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Root>
  <Delhi><Population>1000</Population>`enter code here`
</Delhi>
  <Mumbai>
    <Mumbai>
      <Population>1000</Population>
      <District>
        <District>
          <Name>Colaba</Name>
        </District>
        <District>
          <Name>navi Mumbai</Name>
        </District>
        <District/>
      </District>
    </Mumbai>
  </Mumbai>
  <Mumbai>
    <Population>1000</Population>
  </Mumbai>
  <Mumbai>
    <Population>1000</Population>
  </Mumbai>
  <Chennai>
    <Chennai>
      <Population>1000</Population>
      <District>
        <District>
          <Name>Chan</Name>
        </District>
      </District>
    </Chennai>
  </Chennai>
  <Kolkata>
    <Population>1000</Population>
  </Kolkata>
</Root>

Add a parent node to the child nodes in an XML

1 Answers1