How to remove element from XML

Question

I do have the following xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" xmlns:gx="http://www.google.com/kml/ext/2.2" xmlns:kml="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<Document>
<open>1</open>
<Placemark>
    <name>L14A</name>
    <description>ID:01F40BF0
PLACEMENT:Home Woods
RSSI:-82
    </description>
        <Style>
            <IconStyle>
                <Icon>
                    <href>http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chst=d_map_pin_letter&amp;chld=3|0000CC|FFFFFF</href>
                </Icon>
            </IconStyle>
        </Style>
        <Point>
            <coordinates>-73.16551208,44.71051217,0</coordinates>
        </Point>
    </Placemark>
</Document>
</kml>

The file is bigger than that but it does represent the structure. I'm trying to remove the element <Style> but I can't find a way to get it right.

I have tried the following method: How to remove an element from an xml using Xdocument when we have multiple elements with same name but different attributes

The code is:

    XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load("kkk.kml");
    xdoc.Descendants("Style").Remove();
    xdoc.Save("kkk-mod.kml");

The Descendants collection is always empty.

Also, when I save the file, it does append "kml:" to each of my elements (see below).

<kml:Placemark>
    <kml:name>L14A</kml:name>
    <kml:description>ID:01F40BF0
    </kml:description>
    <kml:Point>
        <kml:coordinates>-73.200,44.500,0</kml:coordinates>
    </kml:Point>
</kml:Placemark>

How may I get it right?

the remove
the :kml appended in the final file.

You need to include the namespace with the element name, otherwise the XML parser will not find the specified node(s). In this case, you need to use `http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2`. — Tim, Dec 04 '15 at 17:17

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:15

You need to include the namespace in order to access the node. Based on the sampel XML you posted, the namespace is http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2, so something like this should get you going:

XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load("kkk.kml");
XNamespace ns = "http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2";
xdoc.Descendants(ns + "Style").Remove();
xdoc.Save("kkk-mod.kml");

If you want to remove the "kml" prefix from the modified document, you can use the following code snippet. This will remove all the namespaces from the document.

XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load("kkk.kml");
XNamespace ns = "http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2";
xdoc.Descendants(ns + "Style").Remove();
XElement newDoc = RemoveAllNamespaces(xdoc.Root);
xdoc.Save("kkk-mod.kml");

public static XElement RemoveAllNamespaces(XElement e)
{

    return new XElement(e.Name.LocalName,
      (from n in e.Nodes()
       select ((n is XElement) ? RemoveAllNamespaces(n as XElement) : n)),
         (e.HasAttributes) ?
           (from a in e.Attributes()
            where (!a.IsNamespaceDeclaration)
            select new XAttribute(a.Name.LocalName, a.Value)) : null);
}

Taken from this SO answer.

The resulting XML file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<kml>
  <Document>
    <open>1</open>
    <Placemark>
      <name>L14A</name>
      <description>ID:01F40BF0
PLACEMENT:Home Woods
RSSI:-82
      </description>
      <Point>
        <coordinates>-73.16551208,44.71051217,0</coordinates>
      </Point>
    </Placemark>
  </Document>
</kml>

It works, thanks. Any ideas how to avoid the "kml:" addition in the saved file? — David Mercier, Dec 04 '15 at 17:24
I'm not sure what you mean - can you update your question with the relevant information? Thanks. — Tim, Dec 04 '15 at 17:27
I've changed the last part of the question to demonstrate my problem with the kml: addition. — David Mercier, Dec 04 '15 at 17:39
@DavidMercier - Then try my edited example above. That should do the trick. — Tim, Dec 04 '15 at 19:22
Thanks a lot, it does exactly what I needed! This is a pretty good example. Thanks again. — David Mercier, Dec 05 '15 at 16:34

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 05 '15 at 01:49

Of course, you can use a native language for XML restructuring called XSLT requiring no looping. As information, XSLT is a declarative, special-purpose programming language (same type as SQL) used to re-format, style, and re-structure XML documents for various end use needs. Practically all general purpose languages maintain XSLT processors including C#, Java, Python, PHP, Perl, and VB.

Below is a solution for future readers where the XSLT script runs an identity transform to copy entire document as is and then writes an empty template to the <Style> node, thereby removing it:

XSLT script (save as .xsl or .xslt file)

<xsl:transform xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0"
               xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" 
               xmlns:gx="http://www.google.com/kml/ext/2.2"                   
               xmlns:kml="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" 
               xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<xsl:output version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes" />
<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

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

  <!-- Empty Template for Style Elemeent -->
  <xsl:template match="kml:Style"/>
</xsl:transform>

C# Script (see tutorial)

using System;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Xsl; 
namespace XSLTransformation
{
    class Class1
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            XslTransform myXslTransform; 
            myXslTransform = new XslTransform();
            myXslTransform.Load("XSLTScript.xsl"); 
            myXslTransform.Transform("InputXML.xml", "OutpuXML.xml"); 

        }
    }
}

How to remove element from XML

2 Answers2