Question

I am working on a project that slots into another project. The project I am slotting into produces a weird XML syntax that cannot be changed.

It has a weird element, to illustrate

<DocumentRoot>
   <Parent>
      <Child-Which-Can-Occur-Random-Number-Of-Times> Data </Child-Which-Can-Occur-Random-Number-Of-Times>
      <Weird-Elt_12309843028938> Data I need </Weird-Elt_12309843028938>
      <Weird-Elt_84509843323232> Data I need </Weird-Elt_84509843323232>

   </Parent>
   <Parent>
      <Child-Which-Can-Occur-Random-Number-Of-Times> Data </Child-Which-Can-Occur-Random-Number-Of-Times>
      <Weird-Elt_12309843028938> Data I need </Weird-Elt_12309843028938>
   </Parent>
   <Parent>
      <Child-Which-Can-Occur-Random-Number-Of-Times> Data </Child-Which-Can-Occur-Random-Number-Of-Times>
      <Weird-Elt_12309843028938> Data I need </Weird-Elt_12309843028938>
   </Parent>
</DocumentRoot>

What I need : The name of the “Weird-Elt” tag, and it’s contents.

Problem : XML cannot be changed. Weird-Elt element can occur a random number of times, as can the Element above it, Child-Which-Can-Occur-Random-Number-Of-Times.

The only solution I can see is to use Linq to XML in conjunction with a regular expression to match the name of Weird-Elt.

Am I right in this ?

Answer 1

Yes, you are correct. You will have to use Linq to SQL with RegularExpression. Here is the sample

Regex regEx = new Regex("Weird-Elt_.*", RegexOptions.Compiled);

XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(xml1);
var x1 = from e in doc.Descendants("Parent").Descendants()
         where regEx.IsMatch(e.Name.LocalName)
        select e;

Hope it helps.