Functions and Nested XML Literals

Question

Hi

I am constructing some XML using XML literals. I have a function which returns an XElement.

Function RootElementFormattingFunction() as XElement
    Return <Root Data="foo"/>
End Function

In reality it is a bit more complicated than that, but it is called from several places.

Now I have linq sequence which generates a set of nodes which I want to make children of the XElement returns

     <%= From row in _dataset Select _helper.ConstructChildXElement(row)

Function ConstructXML() as XElement

    Return <%= RootElementFormattingFunction %>
               ????

End Function

Now I know that I could pass the linq as an argument to RootElementFormattingFunction but because that function is called from several places, the linq sequence may not be applicate in certain scenarios. So, ideally, I want to make all the nodes returned by linq sequence children on the Root node in the ConstructXML function.

However, I'm not sure of the syntax I need

For example I tried

        Return <%= RootElementFormattingFunction.Add(linq sequence here ) %>

but that obviously didn't work.

So I'd be grateful if you could show me the syntax for what I am trying to achieve.

Many thanks

Simon

Answer 1

Okay so I'm sorted ... pretty simple really ... think I was being too much of an "XML literal universalist". I'm sure you probably could implement this via XML literals.

Function ConstructXML() as XElement

   Dim parent = RootElementFormattingFunction
   Dim children = From row in _dataset Select _helper.ConstructChildXElement(row)

   parent.add(children)

   return New XElement("MyXML", parent)

End Function

Should Add not be a function returning the parent as an XElement? (Yes ... extension methods etc ...)

Thx

Simon