Loading a IEnumerable<XElement> collection

Question

XElement root = XElement.Load(xmlReader);

IEnumerable<XElment> items = root.Elements("?????????");

Where the ???? is, can I add a path or it has to be a single xml element name?

ie. can I do /blah/blah2/asdf ?

Answer 1

If you try to pass an XPath you will generate this exception:

An unhandled exception of type 'System.Xml.XmlException' occurred in System.Xml.dll

Additional information: The '/' character, hexadecimal value 0x2F, cannot be included in a name.

You must pass the element name as a string. That string is implicity converted to an XName type that has restrictions over what characters can and cannot be in the string (/,<, >, etc.).

Answer 2

No, the parameter to the Elements extension method needs to be a single element name (an XName actually, but if you don't need namespaces, just pass the element name as a string), not an XPath.

If you want to select XElements using XPath, there is also an extension method for that. Include System.Xml.XPath and do:

IEnumerable<XElement> items = root.XPathSelectElements("your/xpath");

Answer 3

???? should be a single xml element name.

Strictly saying, The Elements() methods accepts an XName argument. Fortunately, there is an implicit conversion from string to XName.

XName name = "Book";
XName name2 = "{http://schemas.company.com/books}Book"; // XName with a namespace

To select a path, use the extension methods from the System.Xml.XPath namespace (System.Xml.Linq assembly):

IEnumerable<XElment> items = root.XPathSelectElements("Books/Author");