Check if XML Element exists

Question

How can someone validate that a specific element exists in an XML file? Say I have an ever changing XML file and I need to verify every element exists before reading/parsing it.

Answer 1

if(doc.selectsinglenode("//mynode")==null)....

Should do it (where doc is your XmlDocument object, obviously)

Alternatively you could use an XSD and validate against that

Answer 2

Not sure what you're wanting to do but using a DTD or schema might be all you need to validate the xml.

Otherwise, if you want to find an element you could use an xpath query to search for a particular element.

Answer 3

You can validate that and much more by using an XML schema language, like XSD.

If you mean conditionally, within code, then XPath is worth a look as well.