Question

I am trying to get values from an XML document using XDocument and XElement. I am trying to get three values, however when I try to return them, they are merged together as one value. Here is the XML I am searching:

<create_maint_traveler>     
<Paths>
        <outputPath value="D:\Intercim\DNC_Share\itcm\DataInput\MCDHeaderDrop\" />
        <outputPath_today value="D:\Intercim\DNC_Share\itcm\DataInput\Today\" />
        <log value="D:\Intercim\DNC_Share\itcm\Log\CreateMaintLog.log" />
    </Paths>
</create_maint_traveler>

Here is how I am querying the values:

XDocument config = XDocument.Load(XML);
            foreach (XElement node in config.Root.Elements("Paths"))
            {
                if (node.Name == "outputPath") outputPath = node.Value;
                if (node.Name == "outputPath_today") outputPath = node.Value;
                if (node.Name == "log") outputPath = node.Value;
            }

When I output to a file, i find that the returned value is

D:\Intercim\DNC_Share\itcm\DataInput\MCDHeaderDrop\D:\Intercim\DNC_Share\itcm\DataInput\Today\D:\Intercim\DNC_Share\itcm\Log\CreateMaintLog.log

Or there will be nothing returned. I had the values in the XML file outside of the tags before which returned the one long value. I am confused about how to return the outputPath, outputPath_today and log values seperatly. Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Try:

var xDoc = XDocument.Load(XML);
var paths = xDoc.Root.Elements("Paths");

var res = from p in paths
          select new
                     {
                         outputPath = p.Element("outputPath").Attribute("value").Value,
                         outputPath_today = p.Element("outputPath_today").Attribute("value").Value,
                         log = p.Element("log").Attribute("value").Value
                    };

 foreach(path in res)
 {
      System.Console.WriteLine(path.outputPath);
      System.Console.WriteLine(path.outputPath_today);
      System.Console.WriteLine(path.log);
      // or do anything you want to do with those properties
 }

You will get values of outputPath, outputPath_today and log into an IEnumerable of anonymous objects. These objects each will have property outputPath, outputPath_today and log with values populated from XML.