Question

I’m new to Linq to Xml. I have a very simple xml file like this:

<Items>     <Item>        <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>     </Item>     <Item>        <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>     </Item> </Items> 

And I’m trying to query it like this:

XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(myStream) from node in doc.Descendants(XName.Get('Item'))     select new { Stuff = node.Element(XName.Get('Stuff')).Value } 

But doc.Descendents(XName.Get(‘Item’)) returns null. Something is wrong with my understanding here.

Answer 1

Your code actually works:

static void Main(string[] args) {     string xml = @'                 <Items>                     <Item>                         <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>                     </Item>                     <Item>                         <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>                     </Item>                 </Items>';      using (StringReader myStream = new StringReader(xml))     {         XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(myStream);          var query = from node in doc.Descendants(XName.Get('Item'))                     select new { Stuff =                          node.Element(XName.Get('Stuff')).Value };          foreach (var item in query)         {             Console.WriteLine('Stuff: {0}', item.Stuff);         }     } 

It should be noted that if the elements are not qualified with namespaces, then you don’t really need XName:

static void Main(string[] args) {     string xml = @'                 <Items>                     <Item>                         <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>                     </Item>                     <Item>                         <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>                     </Item>                 </Items>';      using (StringReader myStream = new StringReader(xml))     {         XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(myStream);          var query = from node in doc.Descendants('Item')                     select new { Stuff = node.Element('Stuff').Value };          foreach (var item in query)         {             Console.WriteLine('Stuff: {0}', item.Stuff);         }     } }