Question

I need to convert a specific part of an XML file to string, with the data in it varying.
eg.

I have an xml file with this portion in it:
-<root>-<Data><1>data</1>

and I want to only convert that line to a string, not the entire file. This, I know how to do. My issue is that the data in “1” will change depending on the circumstances, and I still want to be able to use the same program to convert it regardless of what the data in “1” reads.

to read the “1” line without verying data I know I can use:

 var xml = "<root><Data><1>data</1></Data></root>";   
var xmlString = XElement.Parse(xml).Descendants("1").FirstOrDefault().Value;

but I don’t know how to do it with the contents of “1” changing.

Answer 1

var xml = "<root><Data><One>data</One></Data></root>";

var xmlString = (from data in XElement.Parse(xml).Descendants("Data")
                 where data.Descendants().Any()
                 select data.Descendants().First().Value).FirstOrDefault();

Side note: having an XML element whose name begins with a number is considered invalid XML, and as such, XElement will fail to parse it.