Question

I have a program where the variable week is made up of object array[7] days and days is made up of object array[9] hours. Each hours object has 3 data members. I want to assign each member of a particular day and hour a specific value from an xml file:

   <parent> 
        <day>wednesday
            <hour>18.00 
                <value1>5</value1>
                <value2>10</value2>
                <value3>15</value3>
            </hour>
        </day>
        <day>thursday
            <hour>18.00 
                <value1>2</value1>
                <value2>3</value2>
                <value3>9</value3>
            </hour> 
        </day>
   </parent>

        day[wedensday].hour[18.00].member1 = xml.day[wednesday].hour[18.00].value1
        day[wedensday].hour[18.00].member1 = xml.day[wednesday].hour[18.00].value2
        day[wedensday].hour[18.00].member1 = xml.day[wednesday].hour[18.00].value3

I am new to working with xml and have come up with the following pseudo code but am having difficultly implementing it:

    member[i] = value[i] where day[i].name == xml.day && day[i].hour[i] == xml.hour

If anyone could guide me or direct me to a resource that would help with this problem it would be much appreciated, thanks 🙂

Answer 1

You can parse your xml with Linq to xml:

XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load(path_to_xml_file);
var week = new
{
    Days = xdoc.Descendants("day")
                .Select(day => new {
                    Name = ((XText)day.FirstNode).Value.Trim(),
                    Hours = day.Descendants("hour")
                                .Select(hour => new {
                                    Time = ((XText)hour.FirstNode).Value.Trim(),
                                    Values = hour.Elements()
                                                .Select(node => (int)node)
                                                .ToList()
                                }).ToList()
                }).ToList()
};

week will be strongly-typed anonymous object. Usage:

var daysCount = week.Days.Count; // 2 
var secondDayName = week.Days[1].Name; // thursday
var hoursInSecondDay = week.Days[1].Hours.Count; // 1
var timeOfFirstHour = week.Days[1].Hours[0].Time; // 18:00
var value3 = week.Days[1].Hours[0].Values[2]; // 9

Explanation:

xdoc.Descendants("day") returns all <day> nodes. But we don’t need xml nodes, so we do a projection, by selecting anonymous object, which will represent day. This object has two properties – Name and Hours. Name we get from first node of <day> element, which is text node (‘wednesday’ for first day). Hours we get by selecting <hour> elements of <day> and also making projection to anonymous object representing hour. Etc.

---

If you will move day name and hour value to attributes like this:

<parent>
  <day name="wednesday">  
    <hour time="18.00">    
      <value1>5</value1>
      <value2>10</value2>
      <value3>15</value3>
    </hour>
  </day>
</parent>

Then parsing will look like:

XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load(path_to_xml_file);
var week = new
{
    Days = xdoc.Descendants("day")
                .Select(day => new {
                    Name = (string)day.Attribute("name"),
                    Hours = day.Descendants("hour")
                                .Select(hour => new {
                                    Time = (string)hour.Attribute("time"),
                                    Values = hour.Elements()
                                                .Select(node => (int)node)
                                                .ToList()
                                }).ToList()
                }).ToList()
};