Split XML into Strings

Question

I'm looking to split an XML document into a list of strings but I'm totally at a loss.

<RISKCALC-OUT>
  <AUTHENTICATION>
    <USERID></USERID>
  </AUTHENTICATION>
  <OPERATION-LIST>
    <OPERATION MODEL="PRV" SUBMODEL="GBR40EDF" VERSION="4.0" FUNCTION="EDFCLC" TARGET="New Platform">
      .......
    </OPERATION>
    <OPERATION MODEL="PRV" SUBMODEL="GBR40EDF" VERSION="4.0" FUNCTION="EDFCLC" TARGET="New Platform">
      .....
    </OPERATION>
  </OPERATION-LIST>
</RISKCALC-OUT>

I'm trying to split this file into strings, so that everything below the first operation node is in one string, and then everything below the second operation node is in a second string.

I've been playing around with XmlNodeLists but I haven't got anywhere. I don't need a total answer, just how to separate them ready to put in to separate strings.

Thanks for your help.

Please show an example result, so it 's not ambiguous and people don't loose searching in the dark. Are these the .... that you expect to see in a first string and same in second string ? — Emmanuel DURIN, Nov 03 '15 at 13:23
You *don't* need to separate anything, you need to *select* the Operation nodes, using XPath or LINQ to XML. You can use the `//OPERATION` XPath expression to return all operation nodes, eg with [XmlDocument.SelectNodes](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hcebdtae(v=vs.110).aspx). If you use XDocument instead you can type a LINQ query instead of XPath — Panagiotis Kanavos, Nov 03 '15 at 13:31
Sorry, each operation looks like this: https://gist.github.com/robbiewoods05/0a50ff5d1905e8f1ff83 That's exactly what I'd like each string to look like. — Robert Woods, Nov 03 '15 at 13:31
Look at treeview example : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28976601/recursion-parsing-xml-file-with-attributes-into-treeview-c-sharp — jdweng, Nov 03 '15 at 15:04

Emmanuel DURIN · Answer 1 · 2015-11-03T13:48:38.073

I would use LinQ to Xml.
Maintenance is easier.

XElement xmla = XElement.Load("input.xml");
var results = from operationList in xmla.Descendants("OPERATION")
                select operationList.Value;
foreach (var result in results)
{
    Console.WriteLine(result);
}

EDIT to have the best of both worlds
(Actually there are three worlds here: Object/String and XML)

A class to hold the data :

class Operation
{
    public String Model { get; set; }
    public String SubModel { get; set; }
    // and so on ...

    public String TagContent { get; set; }
    public String FullTag{ get; set; }
}

Make the linq query :

XElement xmla = XElement.Load("input.xml");
var operations = from operation in xmla.Descendants("OPERATION")
                    select new Operation
                    {
                        Model = operation.Attribute("MODEL").Value,
                        SubModel = operation.Attribute("SUBMODEL").Value,
                        TagContent = operation.Value,
                        FullTag = operation.ToString(),

                    };
foreach (var operation in operations)
{
    Console.WriteLine(operation.Model + " - " + operation.SubModel+ " - " + operation.TagContent " - " + operation.FullTag);
}

Regards

This is very close to what I'm after, but I'd like to keep the tags as well... is there any way to do that? — Robert Woods, Nov 03 '15 at 13:37
You want to keep . or do you want to have all the information in an Operation holding Model, SubModel Information ? — Emmanuel DURIN, Nov 03 '15 at 13:39
I'd like to keep every tag including , , etc, as well as all the information your first solution gave. — Robert Woods, Nov 03 '15 at 13:43

Volkan Paksoy · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-03T13:43:23.457

You can use LINQ to XML like this:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    string path = "XMLFile1.xml";
    XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load(path);
    var ops = xdoc.Descendants("OPERATION")
        .Elements()
        .Select(n => n.ToString())
        .ToList<string>();

    ops.ForEach(s => Console.WriteLine(s));
}

I used this sample XML (added random stuff for testing purposes):

<RISKCALC-OUT>
  <AUTHENTICATION>
    <USERID></USERID>
  </AUTHENTICATION>
  <OPERATION-LIST>
    <OPERATION MODEL="PRV" SUBMODEL="GBR40EDF" VERSION="4.0" FUNCTION="EDFCLC" TARGET="New Platform">
      <SUBNODES ID="1">
        <ANOTHER ID="56"></ANOTHER>
      </SUBNODES>
    </OPERATION>
    <OPERATION MODEL="PRV" SUBMODEL="GBR40EDF" VERSION="4.0" FUNCTION="EDFCLC" TARGET="New Platform">
      <SUBNODES ID="1">
        <ANOTHER ID="65"></ANOTHER>
      </SUBNODES>
    </OPERATION>
  </OPERATION-LIST>
</RISKCALC-OUT>

and got this output with the above code:

<SUBNODES ID="1">
  <ANOTHER ID="56"></ANOTHER>
</SUBNODES>
<SUBNODES ID="1">
  <ANOTHER ID="65"></ANOTHER>
</SUBNODES>

To keep the OPERATION nodes you can remove Elements() like this:

var ops = xdoc.Descendants("OPERATION")
            .Select(n => n.ToString())
            .ToList<string>();

which would produce

<OPERATION MODEL="PRV" SUBMODEL="GBR40EDF" VERSION="4.0" FUNCTION="EDFCLC" TARGE
T="New Platform">
  <SUBNODES ID="1">
    <ANOTHER ID="56"></ANOTHER>
  </SUBNODES>
</OPERATION>
<OPERATION MODEL="PRV" SUBMODEL="GBR40EDF" VERSION="4.0" FUNCTION="EDFCLC" TARGE
T="New Platform">
  <SUBNODES ID="1">
    <ANOTHER ID="65"></ANOTHER>
  </SUBNODES>
</OPERATION>

Split XML into Strings

2 Answers2