Best method to check the empty child nodes in XML?

Question

Hi, I have a xml which is max 3 levels deep. Now by using C# or Xpath what the best method to check the whether all the child nodes under a parent node are empty.

Thanks in Advance.

Answer 1

Given a sample document of:

<foo>
  <bar>
    <baz/>
    <baz>Hello, world!</baz>
    <baz><qux/></baz>
  </bar>
</foo>

This expression tells you which children of foo/bar have any child elements:

foo/bar/*[count(*)>0]

This expression tells you which children of foo/bar have any child text nodes:

foo/bar/*[text()]

So to ensure that all children are empty (no child elements or text nodes), ensure that this expression returns true:

not(foo/bar/*[count(*)>0 or text()])