asked on

XPath Iterating through nodes with C#

I'm using C# and reading an XML document like the following (example):

<it>
<abc>123</abc>
<stuff>0</stuff>
<jumbo>
<big>false</big>
<large>true</large>
</jumbo>
</it>

I'm using the xPathNavigator and xPathNodeIterator to go through each node. The problem is I don't always know what nodes will be in the <it> node. So I need a way to iterate through the nodes and just add the node name and value to an array. I've almost got it however when I use the xPathNodeIterator and search all descendants it returns "falsetrue" for the <jumbo> node - apparently reading the value of this node concatenates the two child node values.

Is there a way around this? I want to iterate through each node and return just the node name and value without adding an element that has child elements.

Carl Tawn

Can you post your code ? Saves me having to knock up my own sample ;o)

SuperGhosty

ASKER

Yea I was at work when I posted so didn't have it available, but here you go, this is what I use to iterate through each element:

private void Iterate(XPathNavigator xpNav)
{
XPathNodeIterator nodes = xpNav.Select("/it/prc/item");
XPathNavigator nodesNavigator = nodes.Current;
XPathNodeIterator nodesText = nodesNavigator.SelectDescendants(XPathNodeType.Element, false);

while (nodes.MoveNext())
{
if (!otherNodes.ContainsKey(nodes.Current.Name))
{
otherNodes.Add(nodes.Current.Name, nodes.Current.Value);
}
}
}

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Carl Tawn

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

SuperGhosty

ASKER

Anything with text. And yes you're correct, for the example above I am getting one item being the sum of all the child nodes (what i dont want) and then the individual child nodes (what i do want).

I tried adding a check for child nodes using the following codes, however it doesn't seem to do anything - I get the same results:

if (nodesText.Current.HasChildren) {
//skip
} else {
//add to hashtable
}