Question

I need a little push in the right direction on how to parse an entire XML document to a dictionary. My plan is to have the key be the path, with each nested type split up by “->”. For instance:

<Foo>
    <Bar>3</Bar>
    <Foo>
        <Bar>10</Bar>
    </Foo>
</Foo>

If I wanted to get a value I’d just grab it out of the dictionary using:

string value = Elements["Foo->Bar"];

I’m not really sure how to go through each element recursively though.
Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

Straightforward solution:

    private static string GetElementPath(XElement element)
    {
        var parent = element.Parent;
        if(parent == null)
        {
            return element.Name.LocalName;
        }
        else
        {
            return GetElementPath(parent) + "->" + element.Name.LocalName;
        }
    }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var xml = @"
            <Foo>
                <Bar>3</Bar>
                <Foo>
                    <Bar>10</Bar>
                </Foo>
            </Foo>";
        var xdoc = XDocument.Parse(xml);
        var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
        foreach(var element in xdoc.Descendants())
        {
            if(!element.HasElements)
            {
                var key = GetElementPath(element);
                dictionary[key] = (string)element;
            }
        }
        Console.WriteLine(dictionary["Foo->Bar"]);
    }