How to remove all namespaces from XML with C#?

Solution 1:

Well, here is the final answer. I have used great Jimmy idea (which unfortunately is not complete itself) and complete recursion function to work properly.

Based on interface:

string RemoveAllNamespaces(string xmlDocument);

I represent here final clean and universal C# solution for removing XML namespaces:

//Implemented based on interface, not part of algorithm
public static string RemoveAllNamespaces(string xmlDocument)
{
    XElement xmlDocumentWithoutNs = RemoveAllNamespaces(XElement.Parse(xmlDocument));

    return xmlDocumentWithoutNs.ToString();
}

//Core recursion function
 private static XElement RemoveAllNamespaces(XElement xmlDocument)
    {
        if (!xmlDocument.HasElements)
        {
            XElement xElement = new XElement(xmlDocument.Name.LocalName);
            xElement.Value = xmlDocument.Value;

            foreach (XAttribute attribute in xmlDocument.Attributes())
                xElement.Add(attribute);

            return xElement;
        }
        return new XElement(xmlDocument.Name.LocalName, xmlDocument.Elements().Select(el => RemoveAllNamespaces(el)));
    }

It's working 100%, but I have not tested it much so it may not cover some special cases... But it is good base to start.

Solution 2:

The tagged most useful answer has two flaws:

• It ignores attributes
• It doesn't work with "mixed mode" elements

Here is my take on this:

 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);
  }          

Sample code here.

Solution 3:

That will do the trick :-)

foreach (XElement XE in Xml.DescendantsAndSelf())
{
    // Stripping the namespace by setting the name of the element to it's localname only
    XE.Name = XE.Name.LocalName;
    // replacing all attributes with attributes that are not namespaces and their names are set to only the localname
    XE.ReplaceAttributes((from xattrib in XE.Attributes().Where(xa => !xa.IsNamespaceDeclaration) select new XAttribute(xattrib.Name.LocalName, xattrib.Value)));
}

Solution 4:

the obligatory answer using LINQ:

static XElement stripNS(XElement root) {
    return new XElement(
        root.Name.LocalName,
        root.HasElements ? 
            root.Elements().Select(el => stripNS(el)) :
            (object)root.Value
    );
}
static void Main() {
    var xml = XElement.Parse(@"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-16""?>
    <ArrayOfInserts xmlns:xsi=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"" xmlns:xsd=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"">
      <insert>
        <offer xmlns=""http://schema.peters.com/doc_353/1/Types"">0174587</offer>
        <type2 xmlns=""http://schema.peters.com/doc_353/1/Types"">014717</type2>
        <supplier xmlns=""http://schema.peters.com/doc_353/1/Types"">019172</supplier>
        <id_frame xmlns=""http://schema.peters.com/doc_353/1/Types"" />
        <type3 xmlns=""http://schema.peters.com/doc_353/1/Types"">
          <type2 />
          <main>false</main>
        </type3>
        <status xmlns=""http://schema.peters.com/doc_353/1/Types"">Some state</status>
      </insert>
    </ArrayOfInserts>");
    Console.WriteLine(stripNS(xml));
}

Solution 5:

Pick it up again, in C# - added line for copying the attributes:

    static XElement stripNS(XElement root)
    {
        XElement res = new XElement(
            root.Name.LocalName,
            root.HasElements ?
                root.Elements().Select(el => stripNS(el)) :
                (object)root.Value
        );

        res.ReplaceAttributes(
            root.Attributes().Where(attr => (!attr.IsNamespaceDeclaration)));

        return res;
    }