Query a DataSet

Question

I'm reading data from xml files into a strong typed DataSet. The data ends up in multiple tables; can I run queries against it to create a denormalized view to display in a DataGrid?

Sample input:

<PeopleFile>
 <address>
  <street>123 some street</street>
  <town>anytown</town>
  <resident>
   <first>Jane</first>
   <last>Doe</last>
  </resident>
  <resident>
   <first>John</first>
   <last>Doe</last>
  </resident>
 </address>
 <address>
  <street>456 tree street</street>
  <town>westwood</town>
  <resident>
   <first>Mary</first>
   <last>Jones-Smith</last>
  </resident>
  <resident>
   <first>Mike</first>
   <last>Smith</last>
  </resident>
  <resident>
   <first>Kate</first>
   <last>Smith</last>
  </resident>
 </address>
</PeopleFile>

Desired output:

123 some street anytown  Jane Doe  
123 some street anytown  John Doe  
456 tree street westwood Mary Jones-Smith  
456 tree street westwood Mike Smith  
456 tree street westwood Kate Smith

EDIT: I should add that in additioan to multiple tables per file, my real data is also split among multiple files which AFAIK will require being loaded into separate DataSets.

Answer 1

Yes, use Linq. There is a special set of extensions called Linq-to-Datasets.

You will need .NET 3.5 obviously, and add using System.Data;

If your multiple files follow the same schema you should be able to read them into separate instances of the TypedDataSet and Merge() those instances.