XML Parsing - Read a Simple XML File and Retrieve Values

Easy way to parse the xml is to use the LINQ to XML

for example you have the following xml file

<library>
    <track id="1" genre="Rap" time="3:24">
        <name>Who We Be RMX (feat. 2Pac)</name>
        <artist>DMX</artist>
        <album>The Dogz Mixtape: Who's Next?!</album>
    </track>
    <track id="2" genre="Rap" time="5:06">
        <name>Angel (ft. Regina Bell)</name>
        <artist>DMX</artist>
        <album>...And Then There Was X</album>
    </track>
    <track id="3" genre="Break Beat" time="6:16">
        <name>Dreaming Your Dreams</name>
        <artist>Hybrid</artist>
        <album>Wide Angle</album>
    </track>
    <track id="4" genre="Break Beat" time="9:38">
        <name>Finished Symphony</name>
        <artist>Hybrid</artist>
        <album>Wide Angle</album>
    </track>
<library>

For reading this file, you can use the following code:

public void Read(string  fileName)
{
    XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(fileName);

    foreach (XElement el in doc.Root.Elements())
    {
        Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", el.Name, el.Attribute("id").Value);
        Console.WriteLine("  Attributes:");
        foreach (XAttribute attr in el.Attributes())
            Console.WriteLine("    {0}", attr);
        Console.WriteLine("  Elements:");

        foreach (XElement element in el.Elements())
            Console.WriteLine("    {0}: {1}", element.Name, element.Value);
    }
}

I usually use XmlDocument for this. The interface is pretty straight forward:

var doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(xmlString);

You can access nodes similar to a dictionary:

var tasks = doc["Tasks"];

and loop over all children of a node.

Try XmlSerialization

try this

[Serializable]
public class Task
{
    public string Name{get; set;}
    public string Location {get; set;}
    public string Arguments {get; set;}
    public DateTime RunWhen {get; set;}
}

public void WriteXMl(Task task)
{
    XmlSerializer serializer;
    serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Task));

    MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();

    StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(stream, Encoding.Unicode);
    serializer.Serialize(writer, task);

    int count = (int)stream.Length;

     byte[] arr = new byte[count];
     stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);

     stream.Read(arr, 0, count);

     using (BinaryWriter binWriter=new BinaryWriter(File.Open(@"C:\Temp\Task.xml", FileMode.Create)))
     {
         binWriter.Write(arr);
     }
 }

 public Task GetTask()
 {
     StreamReader stream = new StreamReader(@"C:\Temp\Task.xml", Encoding.Unicode);
     return (Task)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
 }

Are you familiar with the DataSet class?

The DataSet can also load XML documents and you may find it easier to iterate.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.data.dataset.readxml.aspx

DataSet dt = new DataSet();
dt.ReadXml(@"c:\test.xml");

XML Parsing - Read a Simple XML File and Retrieve Values

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