What's the difference between XElement and XDocument?

Question

What is the difference between XElement and XDocument and when do you use each?

Answer 1

Here's a practical example from msdn which makes it clear. Assume you have this in test.xml file:

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1. With XDocument if you do this:

   foreach (var element in XDocument.Load("test.xml").Elements())
       Console.WriteLine(element);
   

   You get this back:

   
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   To get the value at Child1 node, you will have to do:

   var child1 = XDocument.Load("test.xml").Element("Root").Element("Child1").Value;
   

   Or

   var child1 = XDocument.Load("test.xml").Root.Element("Child1").Value;
   

2. With XElement if you do this:

   foreach (var element in XElement.Load("test.xml").Elements())
       Console.WriteLine(element);
   

   You get this back:

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   To get the value at Child1 node, you will do:

   var child1 = XElement.Load("test.xml").Element("Child1").Value;
   

In short, XElement ignores the root node while XDocument doesnt. Roughly, XDocument.Root = XElement, or XDocument.Root.Elements() = XElement.Elements(). Both derive from XContainer. Another minor difference is that XElement implements IXmlSerializable which I dont think matters mostly. XElement would be enough for vast majority of cases where you just want to query the sub nodes. The name confuses me though, so I prefer to use XDocument.