Develop Reference

I am having trouble moving data from an XML file into an ARRAY with CDATA node type

As per title am having issues getting data from an XML file with CDATA elements into an array.
Based on my current limited understanding of how to do it, I came up with this basic working method
CDATA is odd so my normal methods didn't work. My normal route of finding the nodes wasn't stopping on them, and then there is the whole CDATA issue.
XmlTextReader xmlReader = new XmlTextReader(FilePath);
while (xmlReader.Read())
{
// Position the reader on the OrderNumber node
xmlReader.ReadToFollowing("quoteNumber");
XmlReader inner = xmlReader.ReadSubtree();
while (inner.Read())
{
switch (xmlReader.NodeType)
{
case XmlNodeType.CDATA:
Globals.COData[0] = inner.Value;
break;
}
}
xmlReader.ReadToFollowing("orderNumber");
inner = xmlReader.ReadSubtree();
while (inner.Read())
{
switch (xmlReader.NodeType)
{
case XmlNodeType.CDATA:
Globals.COData[1] = inner.Value;
break;
}
}
But I have many many data elements to fetch and assume there is a better way. File looks like:
And the relevant portion:
<quoteNumber>
<![CDATA[ John Test 123]]>
</quoteNumber>
<orderNumber>
<![CDATA[ 1352738]]>
</orderNumber>
The item contained does have a closing element at file end. The entire XML is too large to post.
the XML format is not in my control.
My end goal is to get the OrderNumber and its value into an array. And the Quote number and its value. I am used to seeing <OrderNumber>123</OrderNumber> so CDATA nodes are new to me.

It's not entirely clear where you are going wrong because you don't share your complete XML, but you are not checking the return value from XmlReader.ReadToFollowing(string) from inside your Read() loop. Thus, once you read past the last <orderNumber>, you will get an exception when another <quoteNumber> is not found.
I would suggest restructuring your code as follows:
var ns = ""; // Replace with #"http://intelliquip.com/integrationS..." can't see the full namespace from the XML image.
var list = new List<Tuple<string, string>>(); // List of (quoteNumber, orderNumber) values.
var xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(FilePath);
while (xmlReader.ReadToFollowing("quoteNumber", ns))
{
string quoteNumber = null;
string orderNumber = null;
using (var inner = xmlReader.ReadSubtree())
{
// We need to skip the insignificant whitespace around the CDATA nodes which ReadElementContentAsString() will not do.
while (inner.Read())
{
switch (xmlReader.NodeType)
{
case XmlNodeType.Text:
case XmlNodeType.CDATA:
quoteNumber += inner.Value;
break;
}
}
// After ReadSubtree() the reader is positioned on the </quoteNumber> element end.
}
// If the next orderNumber node is nmissing, ReadToFollowing() will read all the way past the next quoteNumber node.
// Use ReadToNextSibling() instead.
if (xmlReader.ReadToNextSibling("orderNumber", ns))
{
using (var inner = xmlReader.ReadSubtree())
{
while (inner.Read())
{
switch (xmlReader.NodeType)
{
case XmlNodeType.Text:
case XmlNodeType.CDATA:
orderNumber += inner.Value;
break;
}
}
}
}
if (quoteNumber != null && orderNumber != null)
list.Add(Tuple.Create(quoteNumber, orderNumber));
else
{
// Add error handling here
}
}
Notes:
CDATA is just an alternate way of encoding an XML character data node, see What does <![CDATA[]]> in XML mean? for details. XmlReader.Value will contain the unescaped value of an XML character data node regardless of whether it is encoded as a regular text node or a CDATA node.
It is unclear from your question whether there must be exactly one <quoteNumber> node in the XML file. Because of that I read the quote and order number pairs into a List<Tuple<string, string>>. After reading is complete you can check how many were read and add then to Globals.COData as appropriate.
XmlReader.ReadToFollowing() returns
true if a matching element is found; otherwise false and the XmlReader is in an end of file state.
Thus its return value needs to be check to make sure you don't try to read past the end of the file.
Your code doesn't attempt to handle situations where an <orderNumber> is missing. If it is, the code will may skip all the way past the next <quoteNumber> to read its order number. To avoid this possibility I use XmlReader.ReadToNextSibling() to limit the scope of the search to <orderNumber> nodes belonging to the same parent node.
By using XmlReader.ReadToFollowing("orderNumber") you hardcode your code to assume that the orderNumber node(s) have no namespace prefix. Rather than doing that, it would be safer to explicitly indicate the namespace they are in which seems to be something like http://intelliquip.com/integrationS... where the ... portion is not shown.
I recommend using XmlReader.ReadToFollowing("orderNumber", ns) where ns is the namespace the order and quote nodes are actually in.
XmlTextReader has been deprecated since .Net 2.0. Use XmlReader.Create() instead.
The XmlReader API is rather fussy to use. If your XML files are not large you might consider loading them into an XDocument and using LINQ to XML to query it.
For instance, your XmlReader code could be rewritten as follows:
var doc = XDocument.Load(FilePath);
XNamespace ns = ""; // Replace with #"http://intelliquip.com/integrationS..." can't see the full namespace from the XML image.
var query = from quote in doc.Descendants(ns + "quoteNumber")
let order = quote.ElementsAfterSelf(ns + "orderNumber").FirstOrDefault()
where order != null
select Tuple.Create(quote.Value, order.Value);
var list = query.ToList();
Which looks much simpler.
You might also consider replacing the Tuple<string, string> with a proper data model such as
public class Order
{
public string QuoteNumber { get; set; }
public string OrderNumber { get; set; }
}
Demo fiddle #1 here for XmlReader and #2 here for LINQ to XML.

Read multiple XML files into a XML class structure

I would like to Read and Deserialize more than one XML file into my XML class structure given a list of strings consisting of file names.
Obviously when reading ONE xml file, you can go like this:
XmlRoot file = null;
XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(XmlRoot));
using (XmlReader read = XmlReader.Create(FileName))
{
file = (XmlRoot)ser.Deserialize(read);
{
Which will deserialize the XML file into the class structure?
It is not possible to have a list with file names and use a foreach loop to iterate over them, reading and deserializing one by one as it would theoretically result into multiple root elements being read, deserialized and replicated in the class structure.
So in general I would like to deserialize each file and append the required master elements to a root object.
Does anyone know how to accomplish this? It would be of great help.
Thanks in advance!
PS: Excuse me for my English, as I am not a native speaker. If you need further information, just tell me!

I managed to solve the problem for myself.
First i created a XDocument for the first file i read, afterwards i iterate through the other documents creating a new XDocument for every xml file and try to get the elements after the root (Language in my case) and add it to the root of the XDocument created outside the loop.
XDocument lDoc = new XDocument();
int counter = 0;
foreach (var fileName in multipleFileNames)
{
try
{
counter++;
if (lCounter <= 1)
{
doc = XDocument.Load(fileName);
}
else
{
XDocument doc2 = XDocument.Load(fileName);
IEnumerable<XElement> elements = doc2.Element("Language")
.Elements();
doc.Root.Add(elements);
}
}
return Deserialize(lDoc);
Afterwards i call the Deserialize method, deserializing my created XDocument like this:
public static XmlLanguage Deserialize(XDocument doc)
{
XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(XmlLanguage));
return (XmlLanguage)ser.Deserialize(doc.CreateReader());
}

How to get specific Values from a xml file with same Name in a element?

I don't know how to extract values from this specific XML document, and am looking for some help as I'm not very experienced on xml parsing.
I have to use XDocument.Load to load the file.
Actually i am using
doc = XDocument.Load(uri);
challenge = GetValue(doc, "Challenge");
this works without any problems, but how to get the inner values of the Element Rights ? (multiple "Name")
At the end of the day i need to now
Phone = x
Dial = x
HomeAuto = x
BoxAdmin = x
It’s also possible that some of the entries (Phone,Dial,HomeAuto,BoxAdmin) is missing. This
is dynamic.
Here is my xml File:
<SessionInfo>
<SID>68eba0c8cef752a7</SID>
<Challenge>37a5fe9f</Challenge>
<BlockTime>0</BlockTime>
<Rights>
<Name>Phone</Name>
<Access>2</Access>
<Name>Dial</Name>
<Access>2</Access>
<Name>HomeAuto</Name>
<Access>2</Access>
<Name>BoxAdmin</Name>
<Access>2</Access>
</Rights>
</SessionInfo>
Edit: (Add GetValue method)
public string GetValue(XDocument doc, string name)
{
XElement info = doc.FirstNode as XElement;
return info.Element(name).Value;
}

NB: this solution uses extension methods, so the using directives are important or you won't see the required functions.
using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Xml.Linq;
using System.Xml.XPath;
using System.Collections.Generic;
namespace StackOverflow
{
class Program
{
const string xml = "<SessionInfo><SID>68eba0c8cef752a7</SID><Challenge>37a5fe9f</Challenge><BlockTime>0</BlockTime><Rights><Name>Phone</Name><Access>2</Access><Name>Dial</Name><Access>2</Access><Name>HomeAuto</Name><Access>2</Access><Name>BoxAdmin</Name><Access>2</Access></Rights></SessionInfo>";
static void Main(string[] args)
{
XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(xml); //loads xml from string above rather than file - just to make it easy for me to knock up this sample for you
string nameOfElementToFind = "Name";
IEnumerable<XElement> matches = doc.XPathSelectElements(string.Format("//*[local-name()='{0}']",nameOfElementToFind));
//at this stage you can reference any value from Matches by Index
Console.WriteLine(matches.Count() > 2 ? "Third name is: " + matches.ElementAt(2).Value : "There less than 3 values");
//or can loop through
foreach (XElement match in matches)
{
Console.WriteLine(match.Value);
//or if you also wanted the related access info (this is a bit loose / assumes the Name will always be followed by the related Value
//Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", match.Value, match.XPathSelectElement("./following-sibling::*[1]").Value);
}
Console.WriteLine("Done");
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
The important bit here is the line IEnumerable<XElement> matches = doc.XPathSelectElements(string.Format("//*[local-name()=\'{0}\']",nameOfElementToFind));. After the string.format takes place the XPath is //*[local-name()='Name']. This XPath statement says to find all nodes with the name Name. The local-name() function's there because we haven't said what schema's being used, in this instance we want any element called Name, regardless of schema.
XmlNamespaceManager nm = new XmlNamespaceManager(new NameTable());
nm.AddNamespace("eg", "http://Example/Namespace/Replace/With/Your/Docs/Namespace");
IEnumerable<XElement> matches = document.XPathSelectElements("//eg:Name", nm);
The double forward-slash says to search anywhere in the document. To limit it to Rights you could say /eg:SessionInfo/eg:Rights/eg:Name. In case you're unfamiliar with it, XPath's an awesome language / essential if you want to get the most out of working with XML docs. If you have any questions about it please give us a shout, or have a look around online; there are great tutorials out there.

How do I retrieve all data from an XML file?

I used this code for retrieving specific value from the XML file.Now i want to retrieve all the data which are present in the XML file .Can anybody help me to find out the solution?
StorageFile xmlFile = await Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocation.GetFileAsync("Content1.xml");
XmlDocument xmlDoc;
xmlDoc = await XmlDocument.LoadFromFileAsync(xmlFile);
System.Xml.Linq.XDocument duc = System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Parse(xmlDoc.GetXml());
var query=
from Date in duc.Root.Elements("Serial")
where Date.Attribute("No").Value=="1"
from Current in Date.Elements("Current")
select new {
NarratedBy=Current.Attribute("NarratedBy").Value,
value=Current.Attribute("Date").Value
};
foreach(var Date in query) {
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("{0}\t{1}", Date.NarratedBy, Date.value);
}

You already have whole XML document loaded into duc variable.
That line is responsible for that:
System.Xml.Linq.XDocument duc = System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Parse(xmlDoc.GetXml());

then you can just retrieve your XDocument details for example into a string variable with an XDocument extension ToString()

You have all data already:
xmlDoc = await XmlDocument.LoadFromFileAsync(xmlFile); // data loadded
System.Xml.Linq.XDocument duc = System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Parse(xmlDoc.GetXml()); // data parsed
===================
Here is a sample code how you may do it. It is fully functional (using local string xml instead of your file) so you may run it. I added only three attributes but you may add as many as you want.
class Program {
static void Main(string[] args) {
// this is a sample string. Use your file instead
string s = "<catalog>" +
"<book id=\"bk101\" author=\"Gambardella, Matthew\" title=\"XML Developer's Guide\" genre=\"Computer\"/>" +
"<book id=\"bk102\" author=\"Ralls, Kim\" title=\"Midnight Rain\" genre=\"Fantasy\"/>" +
"</catalog>";
XmlDocument xdoc = new XmlDocument();
xdoc.LoadXml(s); // here we load data
// here we get attributes. I have three, you will add three more. Also you may want to use string array instead of variables
foreach (XmlNode task in xdoc.DocumentElement.ChildNodes)
{
string author = task.Attributes["author"].InnerText;
string title = task.Attributes["title"].InnerText;
string genre = task.Attributes["genre"].InnerText;
}
}
}

How do I read and parse an XML file in C#?

How do I read and parse an XML file in C#?

XmlDocument to read an XML from string or from file.
using System.Xml;
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load("c:\\temp.xml");
or
doc.LoadXml("<xml>something</xml>");
then find a node below it ie like this
XmlNode node = doc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("/book/title");
or
foreach(XmlNode node in doc.DocumentElement.ChildNodes){
string text = node.InnerText; //or loop through its children as well
}
then read the text inside that node like this
string text = node.InnerText;
or read an attribute
string attr = node.Attributes["theattributename"]?.InnerText
Always check for null on Attributes["something"] since it will be null if the attribute does not exist.

LINQ to XML Example:
// Loading from a file, you can also load from a stream
var xml = XDocument.Load(#"C:\contacts.xml");
// Query the data and write out a subset of contacts
var query = from c in xml.Root.Descendants("contact")
where (int)c.Attribute("id") < 4
select c.Element("firstName").Value + " " +
c.Element("lastName").Value;
foreach (string name in query)
{
Console.WriteLine("Contact's Full Name: {0}", name);
}
Reference: LINQ to XML at MSDN

Here's an application I wrote for reading xml sitemaps:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.IO;
using System.Data;
using System.Xml;
namespace SiteMapReader
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Please Enter the Location of the file");
// get the location we want to get the sitemaps from
string dirLoc = Console.ReadLine();
// get all the sitemaps
string[] sitemaps = Directory.GetFiles(dirLoc);
StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(Application.StartupPath + #"\locs.txt", true);
// loop through each file
foreach (string sitemap in sitemaps)
{
try
{
// new xdoc instance
XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument();
//load up the xml from the location
xDoc.Load(sitemap);
// cycle through each child noed
foreach (XmlNode node in xDoc.DocumentElement.ChildNodes)
{
// first node is the url ... have to go to nexted loc node
foreach (XmlNode locNode in node)
{
// thereare a couple child nodes here so only take data from node named loc
if (locNode.Name == "loc")
{
// get the content of the loc node
string loc = locNode.InnerText;
// write it to the console so you can see its working
Console.WriteLine(loc + Environment.NewLine);
// write it to the file
sw.Write(loc + Environment.NewLine);
}
}
}
}
catch { }
}
Console.WriteLine("All Done :-)");
Console.ReadLine();
}
static void readSitemap()
{
}
}
}
Code on Paste Bin
http://pastebin.com/yK7cSNeY

There are lots of way, some:
XmlSerializer. use a class with the target schema
you want to read - use XmlSerializer
to get the data in an Xml loaded into
an instance of the class.
Linq 2 xml
XmlTextReader.
XmlDocument
XPathDocument (read-only access)

You could use a DataSet to read XML strings.
var xmlString = File.ReadAllText(FILE_PATH);
var stringReader = new StringReader(xmlString);
var dsSet = new DataSet();
dsSet.ReadXml(stringReader);
Posting this for the sake of information.

You can either:
Use XmlSerializer class
Use XmlDocument class
Examples are on the msdn pages provided

Linq to XML.
Also, VB.NET has much better xml parsing support via the compiler than C#. If you have the option and the desire, check it out.

Check out XmlTextReader class for instance.

There are different ways, depending on where you want to get.
XmlDocument is lighter than XDocument, but if you wish to verify minimalistically that a string contains XML, then regular expression is possibly the fastest and lightest choice you can make. For example, I have implemented Smoke Tests with SpecFlow for my API and I wish to test if one of the results in any valid XML - then I would use a regular expression. But if I need to extract values from this XML, then I would parse it with XDocument to do it faster and with less code. Or I would use XmlDocument if I have to work with a big XML (and sometimes I work with XML's that are around 1M lines, even more); then I could even read it line by line. Why? Try opening more than 800MB in private bytes in Visual Studio; even on production you should not have objects bigger than 2GB. You can with a twerk, but you should not. If you would have to parse a document, which contains A LOT of lines, then this documents would probably be CSV.
I have written this comment, because I see a lof of examples with XDocument. XDocument is not good for big documents, or when you only want to verify if there the content is XML valid. If you wish to check if the XML itself makes sense, then you need Schema.
I also downvoted the suggested answer, because I believe it needs the above information inside itself. Imagine I need to verify if 200M of XML, 10 times an hour, is valid XML. XDocument will waste a lof of resources.
prasanna venkatesh also states you could try filling the string to a dataset, it will indicate valid XML as well.

public void ReadXmlFile()
{
string path = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/App_Data"); // Finds the location of App_Data on server.
XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(System.IO.Path.Combine(path, "XMLFile7.xml")); //Combines the location of App_Data and the file name
while (reader.Read())
{
switch (reader.NodeType)
{
case XmlNodeType.Element:
break;
case XmlNodeType.Text:
columnNames.Add(reader.Value);
break;
case XmlNodeType.EndElement:
break;
}
}
}
You can avoid the first statement and just specify the path name in constructor of XmlTextReader.

If you want to retrive a particular value from an XML file
XmlDocument _LocalInfo_Xml = new XmlDocument();
_LocalInfo_Xml.Load(fileName);
XmlElement _XmlElement;
_XmlElement = _LocalInfo_Xml.GetElementsByTagName("UserId")[0] as XmlElement;
string Value = _XmlElement.InnerText;

Here is another approach using Cinchoo ETL - an open source library to parse xml file with few lines of code.
using (var r = ChoXmlReader<Item>.LoadText(xml)
.WithXPath("//item")
)
{
foreach (var rec in r)
rec.Print();
}
public class Item
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public string ProtectionLevel { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
}
Sample fiddle: https://dotnetfiddle.net/otYq5j
Disclaimer: I'm author of this library.