Question

If we have a XML like:

<Data>
    <Cars>
      <Details>
        <Dataset se-datafilter="cars" dv-datamanipulationrequired="false" dv-filtercondition="" dv-sortcolumn="" dv-gettopNrows="" />
        <XmlData></XmlData>
      </Details>
    </Cars>
    <Jeeps>
      <Details>
        <Dataset se-datafilter="jeeps" dv-datamanipulationrequired="false" dv-filtercondition="" dv-sortcolumn="" dv-gettopNrows="" />
        <XmlData></XmlData>
      </Details>
    </Jeeps>
</Data>

What is the best way to retrieve the values of all the attributes stored in <Dataset> element for sMainTagName. sMainTagName can either have value “Cars” or “Jeeps”. Passed from the UI.

I have the following code now:

var cols = doc.XPathSelectElements("/Data/" + sMainTagName + "/Details");

string sDataFilter = String.Empty;
string sFilterCondition = String.Empty;
string sSortCol = String.Empty;                        

foreach (var att in cols.Elements("Dataset").Attributes())
{                           
    switch(att.Name.ToString())
    {
        case "se-datafilter":
            sDataFilter = att.Value;
            break;
        case "dv-filtercondition":
            sFilterCondition = att.Value;
            break;
        case "dv-sortcolumn":
            sSortCol = att.Value;
            break;
    }
}

Answer 1

How about returning a dictionary, build up from the attributes.

return xdoc.XPathSelectElements("/Data/" + sMainTagName + "/Details/Dataset")
        .Attributes()
        .ToDictionary(attr => attr.Name, attr => attr.Value);