Question

<asp:XmlDataSource ID="XmlDataSource2" runat="server" 
            DataFile="~/App_Data/XMLFile1.xml" TransformFile="XSLTFile1.xslt"></asp:XmlDataSource>        
        <asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server" 
            DataSourceID="XmlDataSource2" DataTextField="author" 
            DataValueField="author" 
            onselectedindexchanged="DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged"
            AutoPostBack="True">
        </asp:DropDownList>

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<catalog>
  <book id="bk101">
    <author>Gambardella, Matthew</author>
    <title>XML Developer's Guide</title>
    <genre>Computer</genre>
    <price>44.95</price>
    <publish_date>2000-10-01</publish_date>
    <description>
      An in-depth look at creating applications
      with XML.
    </description>
  </book>
  <book id="bk102">
    <author>Ralls, Kim</author>
    <title>Midnight Rain</title>
    <genre>Fantasy</genre>
    <price>5.95</price>
    <publish_date>2000-12-16</publish_date>
    <description>
      A former architect battles corporate zombies,
      an evil sorceress, and her own childhood to become queen
      of the world.
    </description>
  </book>
  <book id="bk103">

i am loading from xml to dropdownlist
list of all the authors
problem is this not distinct am geting more then one of each author
how do i make this dropdownlist distinct ??
i tryed to google about it and found selectcommand but i could not get it to work
it seems to be like a sql query but am not sure
hope someone here can help 🙂

Answer 1

Not sure if this will work for you, but you can specify the XPath property to the Xml data source: XPath=”//author[not(.=preceding::author)]”.

<asp:XmlDataSource ID="XmlDataSource2" runat="server" 
            DataFile="~/App_Data/XMLFile1.xml" XPath="//author[not(.=preceding::author)]"></asp:XmlDataSource>