What is wrong with my simple query?

Question

I'm new to Linq to Xml. I have a very simple xml file like this:

<Items>
    <Item>
       <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>
    </Item>
    <Item>
       <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>
    </Item>
</Items>

And I'm trying to query it like this:

XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(myStream)
from node in doc.Descendants(XName.Get("Item"))
    select new { Stuff = node.Element(XName.Get("Stuff")).Value }

But doc.Descendents(XName.Get("Item")) returns null. Something is wrong with my understanding here.

Answer 1

Try using doc.Root.Decendants("Item")

Answer 2

There's an implicit conversion from System.String to XName, so the more usual form is

...doc.Descendants("Item")

and

...node.Element("Stuff").Value

Besides that, I suggest doc.Root.Descendants() as in the previous answer. The document is still at the "top" of the hierarchy when it's loaded. I was under the impression that Descendants() was recursive, but who knows, right?

Answer 3

Your code actually works:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    string xml = @"
                <Items>
                    <Item>
                        <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>
                    </Item>
                    <Item>
                        <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>
                    </Item>
                </Items>";

    using (StringReader myStream = new StringReader(xml))
    {
        XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(myStream);

        var query = from node in doc.Descendants(XName.Get("Item"))
                    select new { Stuff = 
                        node.Element(XName.Get("Stuff")).Value };

        foreach (var item in query)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Stuff: {0}", item.Stuff);
        }
    }

It should be noted that if the elements are not qualified with namespaces, then you don't really need XName:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    string xml = @"
                <Items>
                    <Item>
                        <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>
                    </Item>
                    <Item>
                        <Stuff>Strings</Stuff>
                    </Item>
                </Items>";

    using (StringReader myStream = new StringReader(xml))
    {
        XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(myStream);

        var query = from node in doc.Descendants("Item")
                    select new { Stuff = node.Element("Stuff").Value };

        foreach (var item in query)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Stuff: {0}", item.Stuff);
        }
    }
}