Question

How do we remove empty nodes from an XML Document?

Asked by: ipjyo

Hi,
I have an XML document and need to remove specific empty nodes.
In the below XML, I want all the empty <business> nodes to be removed. I also have an existing function to remove the empty nodes. Could anybody help me what to pass to the function to remove empty <business> nodes?
Thanks for any help!

<document>
  <transaction>
     <participants>
        <obligors>
          <business> <name> Group1 </name> </business>
          <business></business>
            <business></business>
        </obligors>
       </participants>
     </ransaction>
  </document>

public static void RemoveEmptyChildren(XmlElement parent, XmlElement current)
        {
            if (current == null)
            {
                return;
            }
            int iChildren = current.ChildNodes.Count;
            int iChildLocation = 0;
            while (iChildLocation < iChildren)
            {
                XmlNode child = current.ChildNodes[iChildLocation];
                if (child is XmlElement)
                {
                    RemoveEmptyChildren(current, (XmlElement)child);
                }
                if (current.ChildNodes.Count == iChildren)
                {
                    iChildLocation++;
                }
                else
                {
                    iChildren--;
                }
            }
 
            if (parent == null)
            {
                return;
            }
            if (current.Attributes.Count == 0
             && (current.ChildNodes.Count == 0 || (current.ChildNodes.Count == 1 && current.ChildNodes[0] is XmlText))
             && current.InnerText.Length == 0)
            {
                parent.RemoveChild(current);
            }
        }
    }

                                  
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Asked On
2009-08-10 at 11:53:06ID24640967
Topics

.NET Framework 2.x

,

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

,

Microsoft Visual Basic.Net

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
12

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Answers

 

by: cpkilekofpPosted on 2009-08-10 at 15:29:05ID: 25064697

It's a little bit weird helping with C# code in a Visual Basic.NET section, but I can swing with it :)

Note that the last line of the condition in the Code Snippet uses .LocalName, comparing it to the string "business".  That is how you do it.

if (current.Attributes.Count == 0 
        && 
        (current.ChildNodes.Count == 0 
            || 
            (current.ChildNodes.Count == 1 
                 && 
                current.ChildNodes[0] is XmlText
            )
        )
     && 
     current.InnerText.Length == 0
     &&
     current.LocalName == 'business')
     {
         parent.RemoveChild(current);
     }
                                              
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by: ipjyoPosted on 2009-08-11 at 16:49:38ID: 25074627

Hi,
I am sorry to have it posted in VB section. Thanks for the help with the above code.
Could you post some VB code to remove particular empty nodes from an xml?
Suppose I want to look for <business> and <individual> nodes in my XML and then remove them if they are empty. Any example or an idea to get started is helpful for me.
Thank you!

<document>
  <transaction>
     <participants>
        <obligors>
          <business> <name> Group1 </name> </business>
          <business></business>
            <business></business>
            <individual></individual>
        </obligors>
       </participants>
     </ransaction>
  </document>

                                              
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by: CodeCruiserPosted on 2009-08-12 at 00:46:25ID: 25076450

 

by: cpkilekofpPosted on 2009-08-12 at 07:36:55ID: 25079145

ipiyo,

use the SAME example.  Just substitute "individual" for "business".  In fact, you can make a function with a parameter that is an array of String that contains all the names of all the elements you want to delete if they are empty.  Loop through the array to check and see if the LocalName of the element matches one of the Strings in your array.

 

by: ipjyoPosted on 2009-08-12 at 09:45:56ID: 25080440

Hi,
Thank you all. Please let me try this once.
I will get back to you.

Thanks!

 

by: cpkilekofpPosted on 2009-08-12 at 11:05:50ID: 25081169

I'll look forward to that, and you're very welcome :)

 

by: ipjyoPosted on 2009-08-12 at 12:12:45ID: 25081800

hi @cpkilekofp,

For some reason I am not using the same existing code to remove the empty nodes.
I am trying the attached code. when I tried this code, it is giving the number of empty elements in a message box but not actually deleting them.
Could you provide any help on this?
Thank you!

xmldoc1 = RemoveEmptyNodes(xmldoc)
xmldoc1.Save("C:\SampleXML.xml")
 
Private Function RemoveEmptyNodes(ByVal xmldocument As XmlDocument) As XmlDocument
        
        Dim NodeToBeRemoved As XmlNode
        Dim emptyElements As XmlNodeList = xmldocument.SelectNodes("//*[not(node())]")
        MessageBox.Show("empty elements" & emptyElements.Count)
        For i As Integer = emptyElements.Count - 1 To 0
            NodeToBeRemoved = emptyElements.Item(i)
            MessageBox.Show(NodeToBeRemoved.ToString())
            NodeToBeRemoved.ParentNode.RemoveChild(NodeToBeRemoved)
            i = i - 1
        Next
               Return xmldocument
    End Function

                                              
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by: cpkilekofpPosted on 2009-08-12 at 15:32:59ID: 25083762

Instead of
   
    NodeToBeRemoved.ParentNode.RemoveChild(NodeToBeRemoved)

try

    Dim parent as XMLNode = NodeToBeRemoved.ParentNode
    parent.RemoveChild(NodeToBeRemoved)

 

by: ipjyoPosted on 2009-08-13 at 08:29:38ID: 25089494

hi,
I tried the above lines of code as you showed.
It is giving the number of empty nodes but the below lines inside the for loop does not seem to be working. When I tried to debug this code
NodeToBeRemoved holds Nothing. I doubt emptyElements.Item(i) is not working.

Thank you!

NodeToBeRemoved = emptyElements.Item(i)
            MessageBox.Show(NodeToBeRemoved.ToString())
 
            Dim parent As XmlNode = NodeToBeRemoved.ParentNode
            parent.RemoveChild(NodeToBeRemoved)

                                              
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by: cpkilekofpPosted on 2009-08-13 at 09:03:34ID: 25089940

Why don't you go back to your original code, then?  It'll be easier to solve one problem at a time, rather than introduce untested changes while trying to test another change.

 

by: ipjyoPosted on 2009-08-13 at 17:13:18ID: 25094352

Yep...I got my original code working now.
Thank you for all the help you provided on this.

 

by: cpkilekofpPosted on 2009-08-14 at 08:38:07ID: 25099210

you're very welcome :)

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