How does one parse XML files? [closed]

Answer 1

I have just recently been required to work on an application which involved the parsing of an XML document and I agree with Jon Galloway that the LINQ to XML based approach is, in my opinion, the best. I did however have to dig a little to find usable examples, so without further ado, here are a few!

Any comments welcome as this code works but may not be perfect and I would like to learn more about parsing XML for this project!

public void ParseXML(string filePath)  
{  
    // create document instance using XML file path
    XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(filePath);

    // get the namespace to that within of the XML (xmlns="...")
    XElement root = doc.Root;
    XNamespace ns = root.GetDefaultNamespace();

    // obtain a list of elements with specific tag
    IEnumerable elements = from c in doc.Descendants(ns + "exampleTagName") select c;

    // obtain a single element with specific tag (first instance), useful if only expecting one instance of the tag in the target doc
    XElement element = (from c in doc.Descendants(ns + "exampleTagName" select c).First();

    // obtain an element from within an element, same as from doc
    XElement embeddedElement = (from c in element.Descendants(ns + "exampleEmbeddedTagName" select c).First();

    // obtain an attribute from an element
    XAttribute attribute = element.Attribute("exampleAttributeName");
}

With these functions I was able to parse any element and any attribute from an XML file no problem at all!