Question

Is it possible to use LINQ to extract child elements from a parent element, for example:

XML

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Names>
    <Harrison>
        <preName>Simon</preName>
        <preName>John</preName> 
    </Harrison>
    <Smith>
        <preName>Harvey</preName>
        <preName>Oscar</preName>
    </Smith>
</Names>

VB.NET

private sub query()
    Dim file as string = "C:\SomexmlFile.xml"
    Dim query = From Names In File
                Where Names = Harrison
                Select preName

end sub

Would something like that work? Is there any syntax that would select all the preNames of that child element, like MySql “Select * FROM file WHERE Name = Harrison” (I know that wouldn’t work as MySql wont query xml but you get my meaning)

TIA

Answer 1

Sure:

Dim xml = <Names>
              <Harrison>
                  <preName>Simon</preName>
                  <preName>John</preName> 
              </Harrison>
              <Smith>
                  <preName>Harvey</preName>
                  <preName>Oscar</preName>
              </Smith>
          </Names>

Dim harrisons = from prename in xml.<Harrison>
                from name in prename.<preName>
                select name.Value

harrisons now contains Simon and John.

---

Another way:

xml.Elements.First(function(e) e.Name = "Harrison").Elements _
            .Select(function(h) h.Value)

or simply using XPath:

xml.XPathSelectElements("Harrison/preName").Select(Function(n) n.Value)