Query XML using Linq

here is code for linq to xml for the same:-

var strXML =
                "<Employee><EmployeeList><id>1</id><name>abc</name></EmployeeList>" +
                "<EmployeeList><id>2</id><name>def</name></EmployeeList>" +
                "<EmployeeList><id>3</id><name>hij</name></EmployeeList></Employee>";

            var xmlElem = XElement.Parse(strXML);

            var list = xmlElem.Descendants("EmployeeList")
                .Select(e => new
                                 {
                                     ID = e.Descendants("id").First().Value,
                                     Name = e.Descendants("name").First().Value
                                 })
                .ToList();

Select allOpen in new window

My version - use LinqPad for easy development:

      XElement data = XElement.Parse(
      @"<Employee>
            <Some_XML_1 />
            <Some_XML_2 />
            <EmployeeList>
                  <id>1</id>
                  <name>abc</name>
            </EmployeeList>
            <EmployeeList>
                  <id>2</id>
                  <name>def</name>
            </EmployeeList>
            <EmployeeList>
                  <id>3</id>
                  <name>hij</name>
            </EmployeeList>
            </Employee>");

      var employees = data.Descendants("EmployeeList");
      
      foreach (var employee in employees)
      {
            var id = employee.Element("id").Value;
            var name = employee.Element("name").Value;
            // Rest of code...
      }

Gary Davis

Thanks, But I get the following error for the the below code:

XElement xmlElem = XElement.Parse(strXML);

            var list = xmlElem.Descendants("EmployeeList")
                .Select(e => new
                                 {
                                     ID = e.Descendants("id").First().Value,
                                     Name = e.Descendants("name").First().Value
                                 })
                .ToList();



'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<System.Xml.Linq.XElement>' does not contain a definition for 'Select' and no extension method 'Select' accepting a first argument of type 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<System.Xml.Linq.XElement>' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

using System.Linq;
using System.Xml.Linq;

Also add reference to System.Xml and System.Xml.Linq from add references in VS

Sorry both the solutions doesnt work. I get the count as 0 for the list  & its not even going inside the foreach loop. But there are records in the XML

Could it be because of xml namespace in the EmployeeList node?

There is no namespace shown in your data example above but if there is one in your actual data, it could have an effect.

OK here it is
<EmployeeList xmlns="http://...">
<id>1</id>
    <name>abc</name>
  </EmployeeList>

A little better performance within the loop:

      XNamespace ns = "http://a.com";
      XName Id = ns + "id";
      XName Name = ns + "name";      

      var employees = data.Descendants(ns + "EmployeeList");
      employees.Dump("Employees");

      foreach (var employee in employees)
      {
            var id = employee.Element(Id).Value;
            var name = employee.Element(Name).Value;
            // Rest of code...
      }

Details at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc716786.aspx

BuggyCoder's solution will also work with the appropriate edits.

Gary