Xml File Creation in C# using Xml To Linq

Question

I've an xml file(Sample.xml) which has the following structure

 <Root>
    <Child ChildName="Ms_7">
            <MissingSiblings>
                <Sibling SiblingName="47" />
            </MissingSiblings>
    </Child>
    <Child ChildName="Ms_8">
            <MissingSiblings>
                 <Sibling SiblingName="P2" />
            </MissingSiblings>
     </Child>
     <Child ChildName="Ms_9">
            <MissingSiblings>
                 <Sibling SiblingName="T2" />
            </MissingSiblings>
    </Child>
    <Child ChildName="Ms_10">
            <MissingSiblings>
                <Sibling SiblingName="R3" />
            </MissingSiblings>
    </Child>
    <Child ChildName="Additional_SIB1">
            <AdditionalSiblings>
                 <Sibling SiblingName="92" />
                 <Sibling SiblingName="93" />
            </AdditionalSiblings>
        <MissingSiblings>
                <Sibling SiblingName="S3" />
            </MissingSiblings>
    </Child>
    <Child ChildName="Additional_SIB2">
            <AdditionalSiblings>
                <Sibling SiblingName="39" />
                <Sibling SiblingName="34" />
            </AdditionalSiblings>
    </Child>  
</Root>

i need to update another xml file(Result.xml) from the Sample.xml file . like

<Root>
    <Step Name="Step1" Date="06/12/2010" Value="">
        <Test Name="Ms_7" AdditionalSibling="" MissingSibling="47"/>
        <Test Name="Ms_8" AdditionalSibling="" MissingSibling="P2"/>
        <Test Name="Ms_9" AdditionalSibling="" MissingSibling="T2"/>
        <Test Name="Ms_10" AdditionalSibling="" MissingSibling="R3"/>
        <Test Name="SIB1" AdditionalSibling="92,93" MissingSibling="S3"/>
        <Test Name="SIB2" AdditionalSibling="39,34" MissingSibling=""/>
    </Step>
</Root>

Now i'm using like:

1) iterating through the contents of the Sample.xml file

2) Checking whether the "ChildName" Contains"Additional"

a)Removing temporarly

3) Iterating through child nodes

4) if more than one child appending a comma(,)

the code is as follows:

        XmlDocument SampleDoc = new XmlDocument();
        XmlDocument ResultDoc = new XmlDocument();

        SampleDoc.Load(Application.StartupPath + "\\Sample.xml");
        ResultDoc.Load(Application.StartupPath + "\\Result.xml");
        XmlElement ResultRoot = ResultDoc.DocumentElement;
        XmlElement RsNxt = (XmlElement)ResultDoc.SelectSingleNode("//Step[@Name='Step222']");
        if (RsNxt == null)
            RsNxt=ResultDoc.CreateElement("Step");
        else
            RsNxt.RemoveAll();
        RsNxt.SetAttribute("Name", "Step1");
        RsNxt.SetAttribute("Date", DateTime.Now.ToString());
        RsNxt.SetAttribute("Value", "");
        String l_strName = "";
        XmlNodeList ChildList = SampleDoc.SelectNodes("//Root/Child");
        if (ChildList.Count > 0)
        {
            foreach (XmlNode child in ChildList)
            {
                XmlElement ChildElement = (XmlElement)child;
                l_strName = ChildElement.GetAttribute("ChildName");

                bool l_bvalue = l_strName.Contains("Additional");
                int l_ntemp = 0;
                XmlNodeList l_List = null;
                String l_strAdd = "";
                String l_strMissing = "";

                String l_strAdditional = l_strName;
                if (l_bvalue == true)
                    l_strAdditional = l_strName.Substring(l_strName.IndexOf('_') + 1);

                XmlElement Test = ResultDoc.CreateElement("Test");
                Test.SetAttribute("Name", l_strAdditional);
                if (l_bvalue == false)
                {
                    l_List = ChildElement.SelectNodes("//Child[@ChildName='" + l_strName + "']/MissingSiblings/Sibling"); 

                    l_ntemp = 0;
                    String l_strMissingSibling = "";
                    foreach (XmlNode l_missingS in l_List)
                    {
                        XmlElement Element = (XmlElement)l_missingS;
                        l_strMissingSibling = Element.GetAttribute("SiblingName");
                        l_ntemp += 1;
                        if (l_ntemp == 1)
                            l_strMissing = l_strMissingSibling;
                        if (l_ntemp > 1)
                        {
                            l_strMissing += ',' + " ";
                            l_strMissing += l_strMissingSibling;
                        }
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    l_List = ChildElement.SelectNodes("//Child[@ChildName='" + l_strName +"']/AdditionalSiblings/Sibling");
                    l_ntemp = 0;
                    String l_strAddSibling = "";
                    foreach (XmlNode Additional in l_List)
                    {
                        XmlElement nodeElement = (XmlElement)Additional;
                        l_strAddSibling = nodeElement.GetAttribute("SiblingName");
                        l_ntemp += 1;
                        if (l_ntemp == 1)
                            l_strAdd = l_strAddSibling;
                        if (l_ntemp > 1)
                        {
                            l_strAdd += ',' + " ";
                            l_strAdd += l_strAddSibling;
                        }
                    }
                }
                Test.SetAttribute("AdditionalSiblings", l_strAdd);
                Test.SetAttribute("MissingSiblings", l_strMissing);
                RsNxt.AppendChild(Test);
            }

        }
        ResultRoot.AppendChild(RsNxt);
        ResultDoc.Save(Application.StartupPath + "\\Result.xml");

Is there any other way to do this like Xml to Linq approch?

Thanks in Advance

Answer 1

This can surely be simplified using Linq to XML. I wrote a short example for your case, you need to add some details (like handling missing siblings too), but it should give you an idea. The XDocument doc should contain the original XML.

XDocument newDoc = new XDocument(new XElement("step"));
foreach (XElement child in doc.Root.Elements())
{
    XElement entry = new XElement("Test");
    entry.SetAttributeValue("Name", child.Attribute("ChildName")
                                         .Value.Replace("Additional_", ""));

    if (child.Elements("AdditionalSiblings").Count() > 0)
    {
        entry.SetAttributeValue("AdditionalSibling",
            child.Elements("AdditionalSiblings").Elements()
                                                .Select(xe => xe.Attribute("SiblingName").Value)
                                                .Aggregate((s1,s2) => s1+","+s2));
    }
    else
    {
        entry.SetAttributeValue("AdditionalSibling", "");
    }
    newDoc.Root.Add(entry);

}