Question

How to load (any) XML file into DataSet/DataGrid?

Asked by: daluu

I've been searching the web about loading XML files into .NET datasets and haven't found the right info yet.

I know the DataSet class has a ReadXml method you can use for the task and there are a few other ways to do the job.

And now, here's the problem - I would like to load, ideally, any XML file into a dataset for display in a datagrid. To make things simple, lets start with the typical/standard .NET DataSet XML format (at least what I seem to observe from SQLBuddy and other .NET apps found on CodeProject.com)

How do I load that into a DataSet and make that show up in a DataGrid looking like this (where a comma denotes separation of table columns)

Extension,StationID,FirstName,LastName
606,950,Station,SIP606
668,953,Cuby,SIP

I wasn't able to do that simply using the ReadXml method of the DataSet and then assigning the DataSet to a DataGrid as the data source.

Am I missing something or is this not as trivial as I thought?

There was a CodeProject article with a title about working with XML and datasets but it only covered querying a SQL database to load data into the datagrid then save the data to XML. The demo app offered a open XML file feature but it failed to work, just like my own code. I assume it would open the XML, if it was in the "correct" format (by saving the SQL query results to XML file first). But what is the "correct" format to save the XML in before I can open it with DataSet.ReadXml?

Also since I'm a novice in this area, a sample snippet of how to load the XML into dataset and bind it to a datagrid, etc. for viewing in GUI app would be appreciated.

<NewDataSet>
  <Table>
    <Extension>606</Extension>
    <StationID>950</StationID>
    <FirstName>Station</FirstName>
    <LastName>SIP606</LastName>
  </Table>
  <Table>
    <Extension>668</Extension>
    <StationID>953</StationID>
    <FirstName>Cuby</FirstName>
    <LastName>SIP</LastName>
  </Table>
...
</NewDataSet>

                                  
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Asked On
2008-08-15 at 23:21:19ID23653141
Tags

Microsoft

,

.NET

,

1.1, 2.0

,

.NET, C#, VB.NET, XML

Topics

.NET

,

C# Programming Language

Participating Experts
1
Points
50
Comments
3

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Answers

 

by: margajet24Posted on 2008-08-16 at 00:48:29ID: 22243455

dont forget to put the path

1. put a DataGridView Control in the form
2. Copy the code below

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
 
namespace WindowsApplication1
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        DataSet ds = new DataSet();
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
 
            ds.ReadXml(@"put the path here");
 
 
            dataGridView1.DataSource = ds.Tables["Table"]; // Table Node
        }
    }
}

                                              
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by: daluuPosted on 2008-08-16 at 13:01:19ID: 31487204

Thanks for the info. Answered my question. But for a novice, it would have been helpful if you elaborated on how the XML gets read into the dataset and how it should be bound to the datagridview and what XML node structures can be bound in such a way that they show up in the datagridview.

 

by: daluuPosted on 2008-08-16 at 13:01:39ID: 22245041

Now I see, I didn't quite get how you load the XML into the data grid. You have to specify the XML node to load into the data grid, and I assume the node must be similar to the table like row-column format, as with the table node sample posted. The samples I found weren't so clear on that.

Thanks.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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