Trouble reading XML File with c#

Question

I have a XML file with the following structure:

    <deftable>
        <table>
            <job jobname="">
                <incond name="" />
                <outcond name="" />
            </job>
            <job jobname="">
                <incond name="" />
                <outcond name="" />
                <incond name="" />
                <outcond name="" />
            </job>
        </table>
        <table>
            <job jobname="">
                <incond name="" />
                <outcond name="" />
            </job>
            <job jobname="">
                <incond name="" />
                <outcond name="" />
                <incond name="" />
                <outcond name="" />
            </job>
        </table>
    </deftable>

inside the tag deftable i can have multiple tables. in the table tag i can have multiple JOBs, and inside those I have multiple incond and outcond.

I'm trying to obtain the values for jobname, and also the value for the name attribute of incond and outcond.

I have tried several paths to accomplish this. The latest thing I tried was this, but I can't seem to get it to work.

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
       doc.Load(file);

       XmlNodeList nodes = doc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("/deftable/table");


       int i = 1;
       foreach (XmlNode node in nodes)
       {              
           Console.WriteLine(node["job"].GetAttribute("jobname") + " -- " + i);
           i++;

           XmlNodeList nodes2 =  doc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("/deftable/table/job");
           foreach (XmlNode item in nodes2)
           {
               Console.WriteLine(item["incond"].GetAttribute("name"));
           }


       }

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Have you stepped through it with a debugger? What's the output? What's the expected output? Do you have any clues on what part of the code isn't working? — Mike Christensen, Oct 28 '15 at 18:32
here's an online xpath tester, you give it a document, and an xpath: http://www.freeformatter.com/xpath-tester.html From that I deduce you need two leading slashes as in `//deftable/table` — GreatAndPowerfulOz, Oct 28 '15 at 18:34
[Check this thread](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/642293/how-do-i-read-and-parse-an-xml-file-in-c) for how to go about this. Doesn't look like you are digging down to the child nodes in your loop. — Always Learning, Oct 28 '15 at 18:35
Thank you all for your help. I managed to access the attributes i wanted using two foreach and reading ChildNodes. The link @AlwaysLearning posted was really helpful, I saw it before, but I didn't understand fully the first time. Thank you. — vardiles, Oct 28 '15 at 19:44

Siva Gopal · Answer 1 · 2015-10-28T20:24:15.603

I am not sure how much the following snippet is useful for you, but you can try with Linq to Xml for your case as shown below.

 XDocument jobsRoot = XDocument.Load(@"C:\Jobs.xml");
 var jobData= jobsRoot.Descendants()
              .Where(it => it.Name.LocalName == "job")
              .Select(job => new
               {
                  JobName = job.Attribute("jobname").Value,
                  IncondName = job.Descendants().Where(it => it.Name.LocalName == "incond").Select(inc => inc.Attribute("name").Value),
                  OutcondName = job.Descendants().Where(it => it.Name.LocalName == "outcond").Select(inc => inc.Attribute("name").Value)
               });

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

0

I think the linq to XML implementation isn't as great as XML to Dynamic

It's described on Deserialize XML To Object using Dynamic ( since you mentioned you tried several methods). Otherwhise, the answer above would probably do.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

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answered Oct 28 '15 at 20:28

NicoJuicy

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Trouble reading XML File with c#

2 Answers2