linq to xml: How to get value of a tag in an element in C#

Question

I have following xml data.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <mail> <id>signUpConfirmation</id> <subject>Activation</subject> <body> Hi, You account is activated \nRegards </body> </mail>

I need to read value from <body> tag depending on id I pass.

This is what I have tried

var xml = File.ReadAllText("C:\\Users\\DELL\\Documents\\Visual Studio 2012\\Projects\\Website\\Website\\Files\\Mails.xml"); var str = XElement.Parse(xml); var result = from mail in str.Elements("mail") where (string)mail.Element("id") == "signUpConfirmation" select (string)mail.Element("body"); log.Debug("mail data:" + result.First());

I get error :

Sequence contains no elements.

Also, I want to access the value of id tag as well in the same query.

You should probably be using XDocument.Load(), rather than parsing a string. — Tieson T.
– Tieson T., Commented Oct 26, 2016 at 7:36
...and if you don't understand why a LINQ query yields no results, break it up into pieces and inspect them. Otherwise you could take forever figuring out that Elements("mail") won't work either. — Jeroen Mostert
– Jeroen Mostert, Commented Oct 26, 2016 at 7:36
Why someone would downvote this question. Even though it has been asked many times, I didnt find any solution to my issue. — Dheeraj Kumar
– Dheeraj Kumar, Commented Oct 26, 2016 at 7:36

Gilad Green · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-26 09:35:56Z

5

You have a couple of problems:

The id and body are not attributes but elements so you need to use the .Elements
You are using the XElement to parse the xml. It will start from the first element which is mail and then you are looking for child elements of it with the name of mail - which non exist. Use XDocument.

Code:

var result = (from mail in XDocument.Load("data.xml").Descendants("mail") where mail.Element("id").Value == "signUpConfirmation" select new { Body = mail.Element("body").Value, Subject = mail.Element("subject").Value }).ToList();

edited Oct 26, 2016 at 9:35

answered Oct 26, 2016 at 7:36

Gilad Green

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5 Comments

Gilad Green Over a year ago

@DKR - please consider marking as solved when the 15 minutes pass :)

Dheeraj Kumar Over a year ago

one more thing. what if along with ("body"), i want value of ("subject") as well.. Can we do that with same query, I am sorry for this basic question but I am new to linq. thanks

Gilad Green Over a year ago

@DKR - see update :) but please also add this extra requirement to the question

Dheeraj Kumar Over a year ago

I have updated question. thanks. I am using result.First() to access which is giving me a complete string, how do I separate these 2 values.?

Gilad Green Over a year ago

@DKR - it now returns an object with 2 properties so store the result of .First() to a variable and then access its .Body and .Subject

Krzysiek Szymczak · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-26 07:37:04Z

var str = XDocument.Parse("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><mail> <id>signUpConfirmation</id> <subject>Activation</subject> <body>Hi, You account is activated \nRegards</body></mail>"); var result = from mail in str.Elements("mail") where (string)mail.Element("id") == "signUpConfirmation" select mail.Element("body"); result.FirstOrDefault();

Here is the code that work.

XDocument

instead of

XElement

End .Element as @DKR said.

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