Question

I have been trying to read an xml file. I have to extract value of nodes “Date” and “Name”, but the problem is, they might appear at any level in XML hierarchy.

So when I try with this code,

        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
        doc.Load("test1.xml");
        XmlElement root = doc.DocumentElement;
        XmlNodeList nodes = root.SelectNodes("//*");
        string date;
        string name;

        foreach (XmlNode node in nodes)
        {
                    date = node["date"].InnerText;
                    name = node["name"].InnerText;
        }

and the XML file is ::

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<root>
<child>
  <name>Aravind</name>
  <date>12/03/2000</date>
</child>
</root>

the above code errors out, as <name> and <date> are not immediate child Elements of root.
is it possible to assume that parent/root nodes are unknown and just with the name of the nodes, copy the values ??

Answer 1

Depending on the exception you are getting, this may or may not be the exact solution. However, I would definitely check that date and name exist before doing a .InnerText on them.

    foreach (XmlNode node in nodes)
    {
                dateNode = node["date"];
                if(dateNode != null)
                    date = dateNode.InnerText;
                // etc.
    }