Question

I’m trying to get the value out of my XML element and convert it to an integer using linq commands so I can do some mathematical equations using it.

This is how I’ve tried it so far:

private void buttonTab4Mod1Calculate_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            var document = XDocument.Load(workingDir + @"\Level4.xml");

            var assessmentOneWeight = from d in document.Descendants("moduleTitle")
                                      where d.Value == (String)comboBoxTab4Mod8.SelectedItem
                                      select d.Parent.Element("assessmentOneWeight").Value;
            int a = 0;
            foreach (var item in assessmentOneWeight)
            {
                a = Convert.ToInt32(item);
            }
            MessageBox.Show(a.ToString());
        }

but the value is still 0 for some reason.

This is my xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<SoftwareEngineering>
  <Module>
    <moduleCode>ECSE401</moduleCode>
    <moduleTitle>Programming Methodology</moduleTitle>
    <credits>15</credits>
    <assessmentOne>Coursework</assessmentOne>
    <assessmentOneWeight>40</assessmentOneWeight>
    <assessmentTwo>Coursework</assessmentTwo>
    <assessmentTwoWeight>40</assessmentTwoWeight>
    <assessmentThree>Test</assessmentThree>
    <assessmentThreeWeight>20</assessmentThreeWeight>
  </Module>
  <Module>
    <moduleCode>ECSC404</moduleCode>
    <moduleTitle>Computer Systems Fundamentals</moduleTitle>
    <credits>15</credits>
    <assessmentOne>Test1</assessmentOne>
    <assessmentOneWeight>30</assessmentOneWeight>
    <assessmentTwo>Test2</assessmentTwo>
    <assessmentTwoWeight>30</assessmentTwoWeight>
    <assessmentThree>Test3</assessmentThree>
    <assessmentThreeWeight>40</assessmentThreeWeight>
  </Module>
  <Module>
    <moduleCode>EBSY401</moduleCode>
    <moduleTitle>Information and Data Modelling</moduleTitle>
    <credits>15</credits>
    <assessmentOne>Test</assessmentOne>
    <assessmentOneWeight>25</assessmentOneWeight>
    <assessmentTwo>Coursework1</assessmentTwo>
    <assessmentTwoWeight>10</assessmentTwoWeight>
    <assessmentThree>Coursework2</assessmentThree>
    <assessmentThreeWeight>35</assessmentThreeWeight>
    <assessmentFour>Coursework3</assessmentFour>
    <assessmentFourWeight>30</assessmentFourWeight> 
  </Module>
  <Module>
    <moduleCode>ECSC405</moduleCode>
    <moduleTitle>Software Development Principles</moduleTitle>
    <credits>15</credits>
    <assessmentOne>Test1</assessmentOne>
    <assessmentOneWeight>30</assessmentOneWeight>
    <assessmentTwo>Coursework</assessmentTwo>
    <assessmentTwoWeight>40</assessmentTwoWeight>
    <assessmentThree>Test2</assessmentThree>
    <assessmentThreeWeight>30</assessmentThreeWeight>
  </Module>
  <Module>
    <moduleCode>ECSC407</moduleCode>
    <moduleTitle>Web Technology</moduleTitle>
    <credits>15</credits>
    <assessmentOne>Tutorials</assessmentOne>
    <assessmentOneWeight>20</assessmentOneWeight>
    <assessmentTwo>Coursework</assessmentTwo>
    <assessmentTwoWeight>20</assessmentTwoWeight>
    <assessmentThree>Exam</assessmentThree>
    <assessmentThreeWeight>60</assessmentThreeWeight>
  </Module>
  <Module>
    <moduleCode>ECSC409</moduleCode>
    <moduleTitle>Software Engineering Principles</moduleTitle>
    <credits>15</credits>
    <assessmentOne>Coursework1</assessmentOne>
    <assessmentOneWeight>40</assessmentOneWeight>
    <assessmentTwo>Coursework2</assessmentTwo>
    <assessmentTwoWeight>30</assessmentTwoWeight>
    <assessmentThree>Coursework3</assessmentThree>
    <assessmentThreeWeight>30</assessmentThreeWeight>
  </Module>
  <Module>
    <moduleCode>ECSC408</moduleCode>
    <moduleTitle>Mathematics for Computing</moduleTitle>
    <credits>15</credits>
    <assessmentOne>Coursework</assessmentOne>
    <assessmentOneWeight>50</assessmentOneWeight>
    <assessmentTwo>Exam</assessmentTwo>
    <assessmentTwoWeight>50</assessmentTwoWeight>
  </Module>
  <Module>
    <moduleCode>EBSY400</moduleCode>
    <moduleTitle>Communication and Learning Skills</moduleTitle>
    <credits>15</credits>
    <assessmentOne>Coursework</assessmentOne>
    <assessmentOneWeight>30</assessmentOneWeight>
    <assessmentTwo>Coursework</assessmentTwo>
    <assessmentTwoWeight>70</assessmentTwoWeight>
  </Module>
</SoftwareEngineering>

Would greatly appreciate some help.

Answer 1

Just cast the XElement to int:

private void buttonTab4Mod1Calculate_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var document = XDocument.Load(workingDir + @"\Level4.xml");

    string selectedItem = (string) comboBoxTab4Mod8.SelectedItem;
    var assessmentOneWeight = from d in document.Descendants("moduleTitle")
                              where (string) d == selectedItem
                              select (int) d.Parent.Element("assessmentOneWeight");
    foreach (int item in assessmentOneWeight)
    {
         MessageBox.Show(item.ToString());
    }        
}

Note that you can also cast to int? which works the same way when the reference does is an XElement, but if you cast a null reference to int? you get a null value back – which can be helpful if you don’t know whether there is a corresponding element or not.

There are lots of explicit conversions for XElement, and XAttribute too – they make life a lot easier.