Select XML Node and Children based on Child Element Value

Question

Is there a way to select a parent node (and be able to use the child elements of that node) by the value of a child element of that node?

Example:

<actor>
    <name>John Doe</name>
    <id>22</id>
    <role>driver</role>
</actor>
<actor>
    <name>Jane Doe</name>
    <id>1452</id>
    <role>passenger</role>
</actor>
<actor>
    <name>Jimmy Doe</name>
    <id>732</id>
    <role>walker</role>
</actor>

I want to select the "actor" with a role of "driver" and be able to then grab that actor's "id".

Thank you!

Answer 1

Try like this. Please check the following Example 

//Load your XML Document or string
XDocument xDoc = XDocument.Load("XMLFile1.xml");
var fieldNames = (from n in xDoc.Descendants("actor")
     where n.Element("role").Value == "driver"
     select n).ToList();
foreach (var item in fieldNames)
{
Console.WriteLine("Name--->" + item.Element("name").Value);
Console.WriteLine("Id--->" + item.Element("id").Value); 
Console.WriteLine("Role---> " + item.Element("role").Value);
}

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With Thanks and Regards
Sambath Raj.C
click "Proposed As Answer by" if this post solves your problem or "Vote As Helpful" if a post has been useful to you
Happy Programming!

Answer 2

1st of all: your xml file is incorrect. You cannot have multiple root elements (there can be only one). So change the content of the file to:

<actors>
   <actor>
      <name>John Doe</name>
      <id>22</id>
      <role>driver</role>
   </actor>
   <actor>
       <name>Jane Doe</name>
       <id>1452</id>
       <role>passenger</role>
   </actor>
   <actor>
       <name>Jimmy Doe</name>
       <id>732</id>
       <role>walker</role>
   </actor>
</actors>

You can see I added a new root element of Actors. If you dont, you will get an error that I was talking you about!

Ok, next, you can use dot notation linq version, similar to Sambath`s solution:

           string path = @"C:\1\testXml03.xml";
            XDocument xDoc = XDocument.Load(path);
            var items = xDoc.Descendants("actor").Where(w => w.Element("role").Value == "driver");
            foreach (var item in items)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Id: {0}, Name: {1}", item.Element("id").Value, item.Element("name").Value));                
            }
            Console.ReadLine();

Hope it helps,

bye

---

Mitja

Answer 3

Alternatively:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
            xml.Load("example.xml");
            XmlNode node = xml.SelectSingleNode("//actor[role='driver']");

            //Write results            
            Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}", node["name"].InnerText);
            Console.WriteLine("ID: {0}", node["id"].InnerText);
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

That works!  Thanks!

Answer 5

Mitja - Thanks for your response!  I understand the XML isn't "proper" as it is just a sample of an overall larger XML file.  I guess I didn't feel the need to provide the whole thing to convey the point of my question.  Next time I will make sure to do so...

Answer 6

:)

ok, do it.

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Mitja