How to remove all namespaces from XML with C#?

Question

I am looking for the clean, elegant and smart solution to remove namespacees from all XML elements? How would function to do that look like?

Defined interface:

Answer 1

user892217's answer is almost correct. It won't compile as is, so needs a slight correction to the recursive call:

private static XElement RemoveAllNamespaces(XElement xmlDocument)
{
    XElement xElement;

    if (!xmlDocument.HasElements)
    {
        xElement = new XElement(xmlDocument.Name.LocalName) { Value = xmlDocument.Value };
    }
    else
    {
        xElement = new XElement(xmlDocument.Name.LocalName, xmlDocument.Elements().Select(x => RemoveAllNamespaces(x)));
    }

    foreach (var attribute in xmlDocument.Attributes())
    {
        if (!attribute.IsNamespaceDeclaration)
        {
            xElement.Add(attribute);
        }
    }

    return xElement;
}

Answer 2

After much searching for a solution to this very issue, this particular page seemed to have the most beef...however, nothing quite fit exactly, so I took the old-fashioned way and just parsed the stuff out I wanted out. Hope this helps someone. (Note: this also removes the SOAP or similar envelope stuff.)

        public static string RemoveNamespaces(string psXml)
    {
        //
        // parse through the passed XML, and remove any and all namespace references...also
        // removes soap envelope/header(s)/body, or any other references via ":" entities,
        // leaving all data intact
        //
        string xsXml = "", xsCurrQtChr = "";
        int xiPos = 0, xiLastPos = psXml.Length - 1;
        bool xbInNode = false;

        while (xiPos <= xiLastPos)
        {
            string xsCurrChr = psXml.Substring(xiPos, 1);
            xiPos++;
            if (xbInNode)
            {
                if (xsCurrChr == ":")
                {
                    // soap envelope or body (or some such)
                    // we'll strip these node wrappers completely
                    // need to first strip the beginning of it off  (i.e. "<soap" or "<s")
                    int xi = xsXml.Length;
                    string xsChr = "";
                    do
                    {
                        xi--;
                        xsChr = xsXml.Substring(xi, 1);
                        xsXml = xsXml.Substring(0, xi);
                    } while (xsChr != "<");

                    // next, find end of node
                    string xsQt = "";
                    do
                    {
                        xiPos++;
                        if (xiPos <= xiLastPos)
                        {
                            xsChr = psXml.Substring(xiPos, 1);
                            if (xsQt.Length == 0)
                            {
                                if (xsChr == "'" || xsChr == "\"")
                                {
                                    xsQt = xsChr;
                                }
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                if (xsChr == xsQt)
                                {
                                    xsQt = "";  // end of quote
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    if (xsChr == ">") xsChr = "x";      // stay in loop...this is not end of node
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    } while (xsChr != ">" && xiPos <= xiLastPos);
                    xiPos++;            // skip over closing ">"
                    xbInNode = false;
                }
                else
                {
                    if (xsCurrChr == ">")
                    {
                        xbInNode = false;
                        xsXml += xsCurrChr;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        if (xsCurrChr == " " || xsCurrChr == "\t")
                        {
                            // potential namespace...let's check...next character must be "/"
                            // or more white space, and if not, skip until we find such
                            string xsChr = "";
                            int xiOrgLen = xsXml.Length;
                            xsXml += xsCurrChr;
                            do
                            {
                                if (xiPos <= xiLastPos)
                                {
                                    xsChr = psXml.Substring(xiPos, 1);
                                    xiPos++;
                                    if (xsChr == " " || xsChr == "\r" || xsChr == "\n" || xsChr == "\t")
                                    {
                                        // carry on..white space
                                        xsXml += xsChr;
                                    }
                                    else
                                    {
                                        if (xsChr == "/" || xsChr == ">")
                                        {
                                            xsXml += xsChr;
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                            // namespace! - get rid of it
                                            xsXml = xsXml.Substring(0, xiOrgLen - 0);       // first, truncate any added whitespace
                                            // next, peek forward until we find "/" or ">"
                                            string xsQt = "";
                                            do
                                            {
                                                if (xiPos <= xiLastPos)
                                                {
                                                    xsChr = psXml.Substring(xiPos, 1);
                                                    xiPos++;
                                                    if (xsQt.Length > 0)
                                                    {
                                                        if (xsChr == xsQt) xsQt = ""; else xsChr = "x";
                                                    }
                                                    else
                                                    {
                                                        if (xsChr == "'" || xsChr == "\"") xsQt = xsChr;
                                                    }
                                                }
                                            } while (xsChr != ">" && xsChr != "/" && xiPos <= xiLastPos);
                                            if (xsChr == ">" || xsChr == "/") xsXml += xsChr;
                                            xbInNode = false;
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            } while (xsChr != ">" && xsChr != "/" && xiPos <= xiLastPos);
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            xsXml += xsCurrChr;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            else
            {
                //
                // if not currently inside a node, then we are in a value (or about to enter a new node)
                //
                xsXml += xsCurrChr;
                if (xsCurrQtChr.Length == 0)
                {
                    if (xsCurrChr == "<")
                    {
                        xbInNode = true;
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    //
                    // currently inside a quoted string
                    //
                    if (xsCurrQtChr == xsCurrChr)
                    {
                        // finishing quoted string
                        xsCurrQtChr = "";
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        return (xsXml);
    }

Answer 3

I tried the first few solutions and didn't work for me. Mainly the problem with attributes being removed like the other have already mentioned. I would say my approach is very similar to Jimmy by using the XElement constructors that taking object as parameters.

public static XElement RemoveAllNamespaces(this XElement element)
{
    return new XElement(element.Name.LocalName,
                        element.HasAttributes ? element.Attributes().Select(a => new XAttribute(a.Name.LocalName, a.Value)) : null,
                        element.HasElements ? element.Elements().Select(e => RemoveAllNamespaces(e)) : null,
                        element.Value);
}

Answer 4

Adding my that also cleans out the name of nodes that have namespace prefixes:

    public static string RemoveAllNamespaces(XElement element)
    {
        string tex = element.ToString();
        var nsitems = element.DescendantsAndSelf().Select(n => n.ToString().Split(' ', '>')[0].Split('<')[1]).Where(n => n.Contains(":")).DistinctBy(n => n).ToArray();

        //Namespace prefix on nodes: <a:nodename/>
        tex = nsitems.Aggregate(tex, (current, nsnode) => current.Replace("<"+nsnode + "", "<" + nsnode.Split(':')[1] + ""));
        tex = nsitems.Aggregate(tex, (current, nsnode) => current.Replace("</" + nsnode + "", "</" + nsnode.Split(':')[1] + ""));

        //Namespace attribs
        var items = element.DescendantsAndSelf().SelectMany(d => d.Attributes().Where(a => a.IsNamespaceDeclaration || a.ToString().Contains(":"))).DistinctBy(o => o.Value);
        tex = items.Aggregate(tex, (current, xAttribute) => current.Replace(xAttribute.ToString(), ""));

        return tex;
    }

Answer 5

You can do that using Linq:

public static string RemoveAllNamespaces(string xmlDocument)
{
    var xml = XElement.Parse(xmlDocument);
    xml.Descendants().Select(o => o.Name = o.Name.LocalName).ToArray();
    return xml.ToString();
}

Answer 6

The reply's by Jimmy and Peter were a great help, but they actually removed all attributes, so I made a slight modification:

Imports System.Runtime.CompilerServices

Friend Module XElementExtensions

    <Extension()> _
    Public Function RemoveAllNamespaces(ByVal element As XElement) As XElement
        If element.HasElements Then
            Dim cleanElement = RemoveAllNamespaces(New XElement(element.Name.LocalName, element.Attributes))
            cleanElement.Add(element.Elements.Select(Function(el) RemoveAllNamespaces(el)))
            Return cleanElement
        Else
            Dim allAttributesExceptNamespaces = element.Attributes.Where(Function(attr) Not attr.IsNamespaceDeclaration)
            element.ReplaceAttributes(allAttributesExceptNamespaces)
            Return element
        End If

    End Function

End Module