Question

I am trying to parse an xml document that I have created. However xml.Descendants(value) doesn’t work if value has certain characters (including space, which is my problem).

My xml is structured like this:

<stockists>
  <stockistCountry country="Great Britain">
    <stockist>
      <name></name>
      <address></address>
    </stockist>
  </stockistCountry>
  <stockistCountry country="Germany">
    <stockist>
      <name></name>
      <address></address>
    </stockist>
  </stockistCountry>
  ...
</stockists>

And my C# code for parsing looks like this:

string path = String.Format("~/Content/{0}/Content/Stockists.xml", Helper.Helper.ResolveBrand());
XElement xml = XElement.Load(Server.MapPath(path));

var stockistCountries = from s in xml.Descendants("stockistCountry")
                                select s;

StockistCountryListViewModel stockistCountryListViewModel = new StockistCountryListViewModel
{
    BrandStockists = new List<StockistListViewModel>()
};

foreach (var stockistCountry in stockistCountries)
{
    StockistListViewModel stockistListViewModel = new StockistListViewModel()
    {
        Country = stockistCountry.FirstAttribute.Value,
        Stockists = new List<StockistDetailViewModel>()
    };

    var stockist = from s in xml.Descendants(stockistCountry.FirstAttribute.Value) // point of failure for 'Great Britain'
                   select s;

    foreach (var stockistDetail in stockist)
    {
         StockistDetailViewModel stockistDetailViewModel = new StockistDetailViewModel
         {
             StoreName = stockistDetail.FirstNode.ToString(),
             Address = stockistDetail.LastNode.ToString()
         };

         stockistListViewModel.Stockists.Add(stockistDetailViewModel); 
     }

     stockistCountryListViewModel.BrandStockists.Add(stockistListViewModel);
 }

 return View(stockistCountryListViewModel);

I am wondering if I am approaching the Xml parsing correctly, whether I shouldn’t have spaces in my attributes etc? How to fix it so that Great Britain will parse

Answer 1

However xml.Descendants(value) doesn’t work if value has certain characters

XElement.Descendants() expects an XName for the tag, not for the value.

And XML tags are indeed not allowed to contain spaces.

Your sample XML however only contains a value for an attribute, and the space there is fine.

Update:

I think you need

//var stockist = from s in xml.Descendants(stockistCountry.FirstAttribute.Value) 
//              select s;

var stockists = stockistCountry.Descendants("stockist");