Using Xpath With Default Namespace in C#

Question

I\'ve got an XML document with a default namespace. I\'m using a XPathNavigator to select a set of nodes using Xpath as follows:

XmlElement myXML = ...;           


        

Answer 1

1] If you have a XML file without any prefix in the namespace:

…

you have this workaround:

XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(@"C:\Temp\books.xml");
// ignore the namespace as there is a single default namespace:
reader.Namespaces = false;
XPathDocument document = new XPathDocument(reader);
XPathNavigator navigator = document.CreateNavigator();
XPathNodeIterator nodes = navigator.Select("//book");

2] If you have a XML file with a prefix in the namespace:

…

Use this:

XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(@"C:\Temp\books.xml");
XPathDocument document = new XPathDocument(reader);
XPathNavigator navigator = document.CreateNavigator();
XPathNodeIterator nodes = navigator.Select("//book");

Of course, you can use a namespace manage if needed:

XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(@"C:\Temp\books.xml");
XPathDocument document = new XPathDocument(reader);
XPathNavigator navigator = document.CreateNavigator();
XmlNamespaceManager nsmgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(reader.NameTable);
nsmgr.AddNamespace("ns", "http://www.contoso.com/book");
XPathNodeIterator nodes = navigator.Select("//book", nsmgr);

I think that it's the easiest way to make the code working in the most cases.

I hope this help to solve this Microsoft issue…