Question

Given the following XML ‘template’:

<Request module='CRM' call='list_service_features' id='{ID}'>   <block name='auth'>      <a name='username' format='text'>{USERNAME}</a>      <a name='password' format='password'>{PASSWORD}</a>      <a name='client-id' format='counting'>{CLIENT-ID}</a>   </block>   <a name='service-id' format='counting'>{SERVICE-ID}</a> </Request> 

Using XDocument, what’s the best way to set the values in curly braces. I got so far but got stuck on the best way to select each of the three <a /> nodes inside the <block/> element. This is just a small fragment of XML, others may have up to 20 <a name='...'></a> elements.

The the way the XML is constructed wasn’t my creation, it’s what we have to sent to our supplier’s ‘web service’…before anyone has a laugh at the format=’counting’ attribute 🙂

@David – cheers for the response, appreciated. I was kinda hoping it’d be a bit more elegant, kinda along the lines of:

List<XElement> e = doc.Descendants('a').ToList(); e.Where(x => x.Attributes('name') == 'username').Single().Value = 'abc'; e.Where(x => x.Attributes('name') == 'password').Single().Value = 'abc'; 

Clearly the code above doesn’t work but I thought there would be an elegant one liner for each of the <a> tags

Answer 1

Does this do it for you? Good old Descendants property.

string xmlInput = ...; XDocument myDoc = XDocument.Parse(xmlInput); // List<XElement> someElements = myDoc.Descendants('a').ToList(); someElements.ForEach(x => x.Value = 'Foo'); // Console.WriteLine(myDoc); 

Hmm, I see you have an attribute in there. Can do that too:

string xmlInput = //... XDocument myDoc = XDocument.Parse(xmlInput); // List<XText> someText =   myDoc.Descendants()   .Nodes()   .OfType<XText>()   .Where(x => x.Value.StartsWith('{') && x.Value.EndsWith('}'))   .ToList(); // List<XAttribute> someAttributes =   myDoc.Descendants()   .Attributes()   .Where(x => x.Value.StartsWith('{') && x.Value.EndsWith('}'))   .ToList(); // someText.ForEach(x => x.Value = 'Foo'); someAttributes.ForEach(x => x.Value = 'Bar'); // Console.WriteLine(myDoc); 

Ah, now with what you’re expecting, I will make it work:

List<XElement> e = myDoc.Descendants('a').ToList(); e.Where(x => x.Attribute('name').Value == 'username').Single().Value = 'abc'; e.Where(x => x.Attribute('name').Value == 'password').Single().Value = 'abc';