Question

I have this xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Interfaces>
  <Interface>
    <Name>Account Lookup</Name>
    <PossibleResponses>
      <Response>Account OK to process</Response>
      <Response>Overridable restriction</Response>
    </PossibleResponses>
  </Interface>
  <Interface>
    <Name>Balance Inquiry</Name>
    <PossibleResponses>
      <Response>Funds available</Response>
      <Response>No funds</Response>
    </PossibleResponses>
  </Interface>
</Interfaces>

I need to retrieve the possible responses for an interface:

// Object was loaded with XML beforehand    
public class Interfaces : XElement {
    public List<string> GetActionsForInterface(string interfaceName) {
        List<string> actionList = new List<string>();
        var actions = from i in this.Elements("Interface")
                      where i.Element("Name").Value == interfaceName
                      select i.Element("PossibleResponses").Element("Response").Value;

        foreach (var action in actions)
            actionList.Add(action);

        return actionList;
    }
}

The result should be a list such as this (for interface ‘Account Lookup’):
Account OK to process
Overridable restriction

But its only returning the first value – ‘Account OK to process’. What is wrong here?

Edit:
I changed my method:

public List<string> GetActionsForInterface(string interfaceName) {
    List<string> actionList = new List<string>();
    var actions = from i in this.Elements("interface")
                  where i.Element("name").Value == interfaceName
                  select i.Element("possibleresponses").Elements("response").Select(X => X.Value);

    foreach (var action in actions)
        actionList.Add(action);

    return actionList;
}

But now I get 2 errors on line ‘actionList.Add(action);’:

The best overloaded method match for System.Collections.Generic.List<string>.Add(string)' has some invalid arguments 
Argument 1: cannot convert from 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<char>' to 'string'

I suppose the select many is casting the results into something else then strings?

Edit:
To fix the last error:

    foreach (var actions in query)
        foreach(string action in actions)
            actionList.Add(action);

Apparently there is an array within an array here.

Answer 1

This

select i.Element("PossibleResponses").Element("Response")

returns the first “response” element. Use Elements instead.

You then need to select many to get the values.