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How to get nodes from XML file without its attribute and put to a List of string

I would like to display the tag names of child nodes without its attributes. Then those tag names (nodes) should be put in a List of string. Here's example of my XML file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ROOT>
<CAR>
<ID>21</ID>
<MANUFACTURER>Ford</MANUFACTURER>
<MODEL>Fiesta</MODEL>
</CAR>
<CAR>
<ID>22</ID>
<MANUFACTURER>Peugeot</MANUFACTURER>
<MODEL>508</MODEL>
</CAR>
</ROOT>
So, the effect I want to get in a console output is shown below:
ID
MANUFACTURER
MODEL
Then I would like to store that ID, MANUFACTURER and MODEL tag names in a List of strings.
This is the code that I tried so far:
XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
xmlDocument.PreserveWhitespace = true;
try
{
xmlDocument.Load("XMLFile.xml");
}
catch (FileNotFoundException ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex);
}
Console.WriteLine(xmlDocument.OuterXml);
XmlNodeList nodeList = xmlDocument.SelectNodes("ROOT/CAR");
foreach(XmlNode node in nodeList)
{
Console.WriteLine(node.ChildNodes);
xmlNodes.Add(node.ChildNodes.ToString());
}
The problem is that it's not displaying the way I want to. As a result I only get two System.Xml.XmlChildNodes which seems to be corresponding to two <CAR> nodes, instead of its three child nodes, such as ID, MANUFACTURER and MODEL.
System.Xml.XmlChildNodes
System.Xml.XmlChildNodes
Adding items to a List basically adds the same thing as shown above.
What am I doing wrong?

If you have to use XmlDocument, then you can -
List<string> elements = new List<string>();
XmlNodeList CarNodes = xml.SelectNodes("Root/Car");
foreach(XmlNode c in CarNodes)
{
foreach(XmlNode n in c.ChildNodes)
{
if (!elements.Contains(n.Name))
{
elements.Add(n.Name);
}
}
}
But I find XDocument to be much simpler and better readability.
XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Parse(yourXmlString);
List<string> elements = xdoc.Descendants("Car")
.DescendantNodes().OfType<XElement>()
.Select(x => x.Name).Distinct().ToList();
And thats all you'll need. Easy to read as well, get all the descendants of "Car" Node and get all distinct names of XElements within it.
Another way to do it -
List<string> elements = xdoc.Descendants("Car").First()
.DescendantNodes().OfType<XElement>()
.Select(x => x.Name).ToList();
In this case I have removed the "distinct" and rather got just the first Car node ONLY. You can see the difference - if by any case some other Car node has an extra element, you'll miss getting that information by doing it this way.

You could loop through for children nodes:
1- You can define xmlNodes like a HashSet to avoid multiple tags like :
HashSet<string> xmlNodes = new HashSet<string>();
2 - Change little the code like :
....
XmlNodeList nodeList = xmlDocument.SelectNodes("ROOT/CAR");
foreach (XmlNode node in nodeList)
{
foreach(XmlNode element in node.ChildNodes)
{
if (element.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element)
xmlNodes.Add(element.Name);
}
}
Demo
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", xmlNodes));
Result
ID, MANUFACTURER, MODEL
I hope you find this helpful.

How to find particular node in XML and all of its child nodes?

This is my XML:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<formatlist>
<format>
<formatName>WHC format</formatName>
<delCol>ID</delCol>
<delCol>CDRID</delCol>
<delCol>TGIN</delCol>
<delCol>IPIn</delCol>
<delCol>TGOUT</delCol>
<delCol>IPOut</delCol>
<srcNum>SRCNum</srcNum>
<distNum>DSTNum</distNum>
<connectTime>ConnectTime</connectTime>
<duration>Duration</duration>
</format>
<format>
<formatName existCombineCol="1">Umobile format</formatName> //this format
<delCol>billing_operator</delCol>
<hideCol>event_start_date</hideCol>
<hideCol>event_start_time</hideCol>
<afCombineName dateType="DateTime" format="dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss"> //node i want
<name>ConnectdateTimeAFcombine</name>
<combineDate>event_start_date</combineDate>
<combineTime>event_start_time</combineTime>
</afCombineName>
<afCombineName dateType="DateTime" format="dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss"> //node i want
<name>aaa</name>
<combineDate>bbb</combineDate>
<combineTime>ccc</combineTime>
</afCombineName>
<modifyPerfixCol action="add" perfix="60">bnum</modifyPerfixCol>
<srcNum>anum</srcNum>
<distNum>bnum</distNum>
<connectTime>ConnectdateTimeAFcombine</connectTime>
<duration>event_duration</duration>
</format>
</formatlist>
I want to find format with Umobile format then iterate over those two nodes.
<afCombineName dateType="DateTime" format="dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss"> //node i want
<name>ConnectdateTimeAFcombine</name>
<combineDate>event_start_date</combineDate>
<combineTime>event_start_time</combineTime>
</afCombineName>
<afCombineName dateType="DateTime" format="dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss"> //node i want
<name>aaa</name>
<combineDate>bbb</combineDate>
<combineTime>ccc</combineTime>
</afCombineName>
and list all the two node's child nodes. The result should like this:
ConnectdateTimeAFcombine,event_start_date,event_start_time.
aaa,bbb,ccc
How can I do this?

foreach(var children in format.Descendants())
{
//Do something with the child nodes of format.
}

For all XML related traversing, you should get used to using XPath expressions. It is very useful. Even if you could perhaps do something easier in your specific case, it is good practice to use XPath. This way, if your scheme changes at some point, you just update your XPath expression and your code will be up and running.
For a complete example, you can have a look at this article.

You can use the System.Xml namespace APIs along with System.Xml.XPath namespace API. Here is a quick algorithm that will help you do your task:
Fetch the text node containing the string Umobile format using the below XPATH:
XmlNode umobileFormatNameNode = document.SelectSingleNode("//formatName[text()='Umobile format']");
Now the parent of umobileFormatNameNode will be the node that you are interested in:
XmlNode formatNode = umobileFormatNameNode.ParentNode;
Now get the children for this node:
XmlNodeList afCombineFormatNodes = formatNode.SelectNodes("afCombineName");
You can now process the list of afCombineFormatNodes
for(XmlNode xmlNode in afCombineNameFormtNodes)
{
//process nodes
}

This way you can access those elements:
var doc = System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Load("PATH TO YOUR XML FILE");
var result = doc.Descendants("format")
.Where(x => (string)x.Element("formatName") == "Umobile format")
.Select(x => x.Element("afCombineName"));
Then you can iterate the result this way:
foreach (var item in result)
{
string format = item.Attribute("format").Value.ToString();
string name = item.Element("name").Value.ToString();
string combineDate = item.Element("combineDate").Value.ToString();
string combineTime = item.Element("combineTime").Value.ToString();
}

Get All node name in xml in silverlight

i created one xml like this
<names>
<name>
nixon
</name>
</names>
i want iterate each node name by foreach loop or any other loop in silverlight using xdocument.
how can i get this node name?

You can use the DescendantsAndSelf() method of XElement to get all the nodes and their names.
foreach (XElement child in doc.Root.DescendantsAndSelf())
{
Console.WriteLine(child.Name.LocalName);
}
DescendantsAndSelf() Returns a collection of elements that contain this element, and all descendant elements of this element, in document order.

With LinqToXml:
var xDoc = XDocument.Parse(mySmlString);
var names = xDoc.Root.Elements("name").Select(x=> x.Value.Trim()).ToArray();
foreach (var name in names)
{
System.Console.WriteLine(name);
}

C# - Linq to XML - Exclude elements from query

I have this XML file:
<MyXml>
<MandatoryElement1>value</MandatoryElement1>
<MandatoryElement2>value</MandatoryElement2>
<MandatoryElement3>value</MandatoryElement3>
<CustomElement1>value</CustomElement1>
<CustomElement2>value</CustomElement2>
<MyXml>
All 3 elements that are called 'MandatoryElementX' will always appear in the file. The elements called 'CustomElementX' are unknown. These can be added or removed freely by a user and have any name.
What I need is to fetch all the elements that are not MandatoryElements. So for the file above I would want this result:
<CustomElement1>value</CustomElement1>
<CustomElement2>value</CustomElement2>
I don't know what the names of the custom elements may be, only the names of the 3 MandatoryElements, so the query needs to somehow exclude these 3.
Edit:
Even though this was answered, I want to clarify the question. Here is an actual file:
<Partner>
<!--Mandatory elements-->
<Name>ALU FAT</Name>
<InterfaceName>Account Lookup</InterfaceName>
<RequestFolder>C:\Documents and Settings\user1\Desktop\Requests\ALURequests</RequestFolder>
<ResponseFolder>C:\Documents and Settings\user1\Desktop\Responses</ResponseFolder>
<ArchiveMessages>Yes</ArchiveMessages>
<ArchiveFolder>C:\Documents and Settings\user1\Desktop\Archive</ArchiveFolder>
<Priority>1</Priority>
<!--Custom elements - these can be anything-->
<Currency>EUR</Currency>
<AccountingSystem>HHGKOL</AccountingSystem>
</Partner>
The result here would be:
<Currency>EUR</Currency>
<AccountingSystem>HHGKOL</AccountingSystem>

You can define a list of mandatory names and use LINQ to XML to filter:
var mandatoryElements = new List<string>() {
"MandatoryElement1",
"MandatoryElement2",
"MandatoryElement3"
};
var result = xDoc.Root.Descendants()
.Where(x => !mandatoryElements.Contains(x.Name.LocalName));

Do you have created this xml or do you get it by another person/application?
If it's yours I would advise you not to number it. You can do something like
<MyXml>
<MandatoryElement id="1">value<\MandatoryElement>
<MandatoryElement id="2">value<\MandatoryElement>
<MandatoryElement id="3">value<\MandatoryElement>
<CustomElement id="1">value<\CustomElement>
<CustomElement id="2">value<\CustomElement>
<MyXml>
In the LINQ-Statement you don't need the List then.

Your question shows improperly formatted XML but I am assuming that is a typo and the real Xml can be loaded into the XDocument class.
Try this...
string xml = #"<MyXml>
<MandatoryElement1>value</MandatoryElement1>
<MandatoryElement2>value</MandatoryElement2>
<MandatoryElement3>value</MandatoryElement3>
<CustomElement1>value</CustomElement1>
<CustomElement2>value</CustomElement2>
</MyXml> ";
System.Xml.Linq.XDocument xDoc = XDocument.Parse(xml);
var result = xDoc.Root.Descendants()
.Where(x => !x.Name.LocalName.StartsWith("MandatoryElement"));

lets say TestXMLFile.xml will contain your xml,
XElement doc2 = XElement.Load(Server.MapPath("TestXMLFile.xml"));
List<XElement> _list = doc2.Elements().ToList();
List<XElement> _list2 = new List<XElement>();
foreach (XElement x in _list)
{
if (!x.Name.LocalName.StartsWith("Mandatory"))
{
_list2.Add(x);
}
}
foreach (XElement y in _list2)
{
_list.Remove(y);
}

XPath and attributes

I'm trying to traverse an XML document and select certain node attributes. The XML is dynamically generated.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<streams>
<stream>
<title>+23 (Panama)</title>
<info resolution="768x420" bitrate="1000kbps"/> ----- Need These
<swfUrl>http://www.freeetv.com/script/mediaplayer/player.swf</swfUrl>
<link>rtmp://200.75.216.156/live/</link>
<pageUrl>http://www.freeetv.com/</pageUrl>
<playpath>livestream</playpath>
<language>Music</language>
<advanced></advanced>
</stream>
</streams>
The code that I'm trying to use with zero luck and Visual Studio saying "No you're wrong. Try 600 more times" is
xDoc.Load("http://127.0.0.1/www/xml.php");
XmlNodeList nodes = xDoc.SelectNodes("/streams/stream");
foreach (XmlNode xn in nodes)
{
ListViewItem lvi = listView1.Items.Add(xn["title"].InnerText);
lvi.SubItems.Add(xn["swfUrl"].InnerText);
lvi.SubItems.Add(xn["link"].InnerText);
lvi.SubItems.Add(xn["pageUrl"].InnerText);
lvi.SubItems.Add(xn["playpath"].InnerText);
lvi.SubItems.Add(xn["language"].InnerText);
lvi.SubItems.Add(xn["advanced"].InnerText);
lvi.SubItems.Add(xn["//info/#resolution"].Value);
}
Please tell me oh wise ones what am I doing wrong?

If you want to select node's attribute using XPath you should use SelectSingleNode method, e.g.:
xn.SelectSingleNode("info/#resolution").Value

To select resolution attribute of your last node you need to use:
xn["info"].Attributes["resolution"].Value
Alternatively, you can try LINQ to XML for the same results (I find its API easier to use):
var doc = XDocument.Parse("http://127.0.0.1/www/xml.php");
foreach (var d in doc.Descendants("stream"))
{
ListViewItem lvi = listView1.Items.Add(d.Element("title").Value);
lvi.SubItems.Add(d.Element("swfUrl").Value);
// ...
vi.SubItems.Add(d.Element("info").Attribute("resolution").Value);
}

Here is an example of LINQ to XML to extract attributes from the entire document of a particular attribute name OR list of attribute names.
var xml = XElement.Parse("http://127.0.0.1/www/xml.php");
// find all attributes of a given name
var attributes = xml
.Descendants()
.Attributes("AttributeName")
// find all attributes of multiple names
var attributes = xml
.Descendants()
.Attributes()
.Where(a => ListOfAttribNames.Contains(a.Name.LocalName))

Replace:
lvi.SubItems.Add(xn["//info/#resolution"].Value);
with:
lvi.SubItems.Add(xn.SelectSingleNode("info/#resolution").Value);