I have following XML file, i want to know best way to read this XML file
<MyFile> <Companies> <Company>123</Company> <Company>456</Company> <Company>789</Company> </Companies> </MyFile> As an output i need collection of values like "123,456,789" or it could be array of string[]
Can we use Linq to xml? How?
var xdoc = XDocument.Load(PATH_TO_FILE); var companies = xdoc.Descendants("Company").Select(c => (string)c).ToArray(); This will give you a string[].
Use LINQ to XML, Include using System.Xml.Linq;
XDocument xmlDoc = XDocument.Load("yourfile.xml"); var test = xmlDoc.Descendants("Companies").Elements("Company").Select(r => r.Value).ToArray(); string result = string.Join(",", test); Output would be:
123,456,789
.Descendants("Company") instead of .Descendants("Companies").Elements("Company")
In dataset you can read xml file
Following are lines of code to read XML file in DataSet
DataSet dsMenu = new DataSet(); //Create Dataset Object dsMenu.ReadXml("XMLFILENAME.XML"); // Read XML file in Dataset DataTable dtXMLFILE// Create DatyaTable object dtXMLFILE= dsMenu.Tables[0]; // Store XML Data in Data Table 
var xmlStr=@"<MyFile> <Companies> <Company>123</Company> <Company>456</Company> <Company>789</Company> </Companies> </MyFile>"; var xDoc = XDocument.Parse(xmlStr); var companyIds = xDoc.Descendants("Company").Select(e => (int)e); 
.ToArray() on the end of your statement to make it an array, but that is what the OP requested. As is, your answer is an IEnumerable<int> which isn't the same as a string[].string pathToXmlFile = @"C:\test.xml"; XElement patternDoc = XElement.Load(pathToXmlFile); List<string> values = new List<string>(); foreach (var element in patternDoc.Elements("Companies").Elements("Company")) { values.Add(element.Value); } In the past, I have used an XmlReader and had no difficulties.
MSDN Documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlreader(v=vs.110).aspx
It is very straightforward and the documentation is pretty well written. A quick demonstration of how to use it:
XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(targetFile); while (reader.Read()) { switch (reader.NodeType) { case XmlNodeType.Element: if (reader.Name.Equals("Company") { // Read the XML Node's attributes and add to string } break; } } 