Retrieve single attribute value from an xml doc element

Question

I have an xml document with the following structure

Answer 1

This is a little older-school, but it works and is very readable/maintainable...

Public Function GetContinents() As List(Of String)
    Dim doc As New XmlDocument
    doc.Load("c:\yourfile.xml")
    Dim ReturnValue As New List(Of String)
    For Each node As XmlNode In doc.SelectNodes("//Continent")
        ReturnValue.Add(node.Attributes("name").Value)
    Next
    Return ReturnValue
End Function