Question

I am working with this XSD file. The portion of the XML that is relevant to this question is here:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
           xmlns="https://wsmrc2vger.wsmr.army.mil/rcc/manuals/106-11" 
           targetNamespace="https://wsmrc2vger.wsmr.army.mil/rcc/manuals/106-11"
           elementFormDefault="qualified" 
           attributeFormDefault="unqualified">
    <xs:element name="Tmats">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:annotation>
                    <xs:documentation>TMATS G Group</xs:documentation>
                </xs:annotation>
                <xs:element name="ProgramName" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0">
                    <xs:annotation>
                        <xs:documentation>PN</xs:documentation>
                    </xs:annotation>
                </xs:element>

To get the documentation value for a given xs:element, I have this small function, which recursively walks the descendant nodes until it finds the documentation element:

public string GetCode(XElement e)
{
    foreach (var s in e.Elements())
    {
        // If we hit an intervening element, bail out.
        if (s.Name.ToString().Contains("element"))
            return "";

        if (s.Name.ToString().Contains("annotation"))
        {
            // I'll explain this loop in a moment.
            foreach (var t in s.Elements())
            {
                if (t.Name.ToString().Contains("documentation"))
                    return t.Value;
            }
        } 
        else
            return GetCode(s);
    }
    return "";
}

So far so good. The unit test looks like this:

[TestMethod()]
public void GetCodeTest()
{
    string path = @"C:\Documents and Settings\harvey robert\Desktop\Tmats.xsd";

    IEnumerable<XElement> elements =
        from e in XElement.Load(path).Elements()
        select e;

    TmatsDictionary target = new TmatsDictionary(); 
    XElement x = elements.First();
    string actual = target.GetCode(x);
    Assert.AreEqual("TMATS G Group", actual);
}

Which passes. Now I want to extend the test by adding an additional case, like this:

    XElement z = elements.DescendantsAndSelf()
                         .First(y => y.Attribute("name")
                         .ToString().Contains("ProgramName"));

    actual = target.GetCode(z);
    Assert.AreEqual("PN", actual);

…But this fails due to a null object reference (most likely y.Attribute("name")).

Did you see the loop in the function above that I commented?

// I'll explain this loop in a moment.
foreach (var t in s.Elements())
{
    if (t.Name.ToString().Contains("documentation"))
        return t.Value;
}

It’s written that way because I can’t figure out how to express the condition in a Lambda statement that works.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Here is the code that works.

Notice the call to the GetName() method in the DescendantsAndSelf() call. This returns a properly formatted URI-prefixed name of the form {http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}element, which will match correctly to the xs:element names.

The result is that DescendantsAndSelf() returns only those elements having the name xs:element, all of which have attributes associated with them (so there is no chance of a null reference error when referencing the Attributes collection).

[TestMethod()]
public void GetCodeTest()
{
    string path = @"C:\TestArea\Tmats_09-2010.xml";

    IEnumerable<XElement> elements =
        from e in XElement.Load(path).Elements()
        select e;

    TmatsDictionary target = new TmatsDictionary();            
    XNamespace ns = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema";

    XElement z = elements.DescendantsAndSelf(ns.GetName("element")) 
                         .First(y => y.Attribute("name")
                         .Value.Equals("ProgramName"));

    actual = target.GetCode(z);
    Assert.AreEqual("PN", actual);
}