Question

I suppose the solution is simple, but I haven’t found an answer despite searching the internet extensively. Please help! The problem is : my xml query is not returning the required result if the required attribute is not inside the first element of similarly named elements. For example, this code is not returning anything:

XElement xelement = XElement.Load("~/Employees.xml"));
        var homePhone = from phoneno in xelement.Elements("Employee")
               where (string)phoneno.Element("Phone").Attribute("Type") == "Work"
        select phoneno;
foreach (XElement xEle in homePhone)
        TextBox1.Text= xEle + "/n";

However, if I substitute “Work” with “Home”, I get the required result. In fact, I should get exactly the same result with “Work”. Can someone please explain how to do this?

The xml template is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Employees>
  <Employee>
    <EmpId>1</EmpId>
    <Name>Sam</Name>
    <Sex>Male</Sex>
    <Phone Type="Home">423-555-0124</Phone>
    <Phone Type="Work">424-555-0545</Phone>
    <Address>
      <Street>7A Cox Street</Street>
      <City>Acampo</City>
      <State>CA</State>
      <Zip>95220</Zip>
      <Country>USA</Country>
    </Address>
  </Employee>
  <Employee>
    <EmpId>2</EmpId>
    <Name>Lucy</Name>
    <Sex>Female</Sex>
    <Phone Type="Other">143-555-0763</Phone>
    <Phone Type="Work">434-555-0567</Phone>
    <Address>
      <Street>Jess Bay</Street>
      <City>Alta</City>
      <State>CA</State>
      <Zip>95701</Zip>
      <Country>USA</Country>
    </Address>
  </Employee>
  <Employee>
    <EmpId>3</EmpId>
    <Name>Kate</Name>
    <Sex>Female</Sex>
    <Phone Type="Home">166-555-0231</Phone>
    <Phone Type="Other">233-555-0442</Phone>
    <Address>
      <Street>23 Boxen Street</Street>
      <City>Milford</City>
      <State>CA</State>
      <Zip>96121</Zip>
      <Country>USA</Country>
    </Address>
  </Employee>
  <Employee>
    <EmpId>4</EmpId>
    <Name>Chris</Name>
    <Sex>Male</Sex>
    <Phone Type="Work">564-555-0122</Phone>
    <Phone Type="Other">442-555-0154</Phone>
    <Address>
      <Street>124 Kutbay</Street>
      <City>Montara</City>
      <State>CA</State>
      <Zip>94037</Zip>
      <Country>USA</Country>
    </Address>
  </Employee>
</Employees>

Answer 1

XElement.Element(“name”) will return the FIRST element of the given name when there is more than one. You really want this:

var employeesWithHomePhone = from e in xdocument.Root.Elements("Employee")
                             where e.Elements("Phone").Any( p => (string)p.Attribute("Type") == "Home") 
                             select e;

And just change “Home” to “Work” to get the ones with a Work number