Question

I’m wondering if there is a way to flip the hierarchy of node using linq to XML or xslt.

I’m want to transform

<hardware>
    <software/>
    <software/>
</hardware>
<hardware>
    <software/>
    <software/>
</hardware>

Where I use the existing parent – child relationship and just flip and rebuild the structure to look like this.

<software>
    <hardware/>
    <hardware/>
</software>
<software>
    <hardware/>
    <hardware/>
</software>

Answer 1

I’m wondering if there is a way to
flip the hierarchy of node using linq
to XML or xslt.

. . . . . . .

Where I use the existing parent –
child relationship and just flip and
rebuild the structure.

Yes. This transformation:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
 <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

 <xsl:key name="kSoftByName" match="software"
  use="@name"/>

 <xsl:template match=
  "software[generate-id()
           =
            generate-id(key('kSoftByName',@name)[1])
           ]
  ">
  <xsl:copy>
   <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
   <xsl:apply-templates mode="copy"
      select="key('kSoftByName',@name)/.."/>
  </xsl:copy>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="hardware" mode="copy">
  <xsl:copy>
   <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
  </xsl:copy>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

when applied on this XML document:

<inventory>
    <hardware name="PC">
        <software name="Office"/>
        <software name="Safari"/>
        <software name="Windows"/>
    </hardware>
    <hardware name="Mac">
        <software name="Safari"/>
        <software name="Office"/>
        <software name="Leopard"/>
    </hardware>
</inventory>

produces the wanted, correct result:

<software name="Office">
   <hardware name="PC"/>
   <hardware name="Mac"/>
</software>
<software name="Safari">
   <hardware name="PC"/>
   <hardware name="Mac"/>
</software>
<software name="Windows">
   <hardware name="PC"/>
</software>
<software name="Leopard">
   <hardware name="Mac"/>
</software>

Explanation: Muenchian method for grouping.