Question

I have an XML document (without attributes) that is setup like this:

<variables>
    <variable>
        <name>Name_Value</name>
        <value>Value of Entry</value>
    </variable>
    <variable>
        <name>Name_Value2</name>
        <value>Value of Entry2</value>
    </variable>
</variables>

I have used LINQ to XML to get a list of all the <name> values in the document. These name values are displayed in a listbox control in alphabetical order (which is not the order of the names in the XML document).

When an item is selected in the listbox, I want to pass the name of the item to a method that will search the XML document for that value within the <name> node. Once found, I want to find the next node (i.e., the <value> node) and return it’s value as a string.

I’ve tried all sorts of things to get this information, but apparently I don’t know enough about LINQ to XML to get this work. Can only provide a solution for this?

Answer 1

XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load(path_to_xml);
var query = from v in xdoc.Descendants("variable")
            where (string)v.Element("name") == name
            select (string)v.Element("value");

This Linq query will return IEnumerbale<string> of value elements, which matched your name. If you sure there should be no more than one variable with specified name

string value = query.SingleOrDefault();

Or in single query:

string value =  xdoc.Descendants("variable")
                    .Where(v => (string)v.Element("name") == name)
                    .Select(v => (string)v.Element("value"))
                    .SingleOrDefault();