Question

I’m trying to match specific terms on a XML file and save the results. Here is the XML text on a string:

<node1>
  <node2>
    <text>Goodbye</text>
  </node2>
  <node2>
    <text>Welcome James</text>
  </node2>
  <node2>
    <text>Welcome John</text>
  </node2>
  <node2>
    <text>See you later!</text>
  </node2>
</node1>

I want to use linq to select any text that has welcome in it. However the name after welcome (ex. welcome James) can change. Thus, i’m trying to understand is there an easy way to select the nodes with any welcome name in it via regular expressions?

Here’s the C# code:

private static void Test(string stream)
{
  XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(stream); //stream contains the xml written above
  var list = from hello in doc.Descendants("node2")
             where attacker.Element("text").Value == "Welcome .*"
             select attacker.Element("text").Value;

  foreach (var x in attackList)
    Console.WriteLine(x);
}

Answer 1

For a scenario as simple as yours there is no need to use regular expressions. You can use the String.StartsWith(String) method that determines whether a string starts with a specified string as follows:

private static void Test(string stream)
{
    XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(stream);
    var list = from hello in doc.Descendants("node2")
               where attacker.Element("text").Value.StartsWith("Welcome")
               select attacker.Element("text").Value;

    foreach (var x in attackList)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(x);
    }
}