Extracting mixed-order data of type xml that I get from API

userIVca1 0
Viewed 33

I am getting data with the help of api for credit card information. The data I got is as follows.

<<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-9"?>
<CC5Response>
  <ProcReturnCode>00</ProcReturnCode>
  <Response>Approved</Response>
  <Extra>
    <PAN1LABEL>PRICE</PAN1LABEL>
    <PAN2INDEXORDER>1</PAN2INDEXORDER>
    <PAN2STATUS>NO</PAN2STATUS>
    <SAFEKEYLASTMODIFIED>11/22/333</SAFEKEYLASTMODIFIED>
    <PAN2INDEXACCOUNTCLOSURE>00</PAN2INDEXACCOUNTCLOSURE>
    <PAN1STATUS>NO</PAN1STATUS>
    <PAN1INDEXACCOUNTCLOSURE>00</PAN1INDEXACCOUNTCLOSURE>
    <PAN2EXPIRY>00.1111</PAN2EXPIRY>
    <PAN1OWNER>JOHN DAVIS</PAN1OWNER>
    <PAN2LABEL>PRODUCT BUY</PAN2LABEL>
    <PAN2DESCRIPTION>DESCRIPION</PAN2DESCRIPTION>
    <PAN1>1111 22** **** 3333</PAN1>
   <PAN2>1111 22** **** 3333</PAN2>
    <PAN2OWNER>JOHN DAVIS</PAN2OWNER>
    <PAN1EXPIRY>02.2025</PAN1EXPIRY>
    <NUMBEROFPANS>3</NUMBEROFPANS>
    <PAN1INDEXORDER>1</PAN1INDEXORDER>
    <PAN1DESCRIPTION>PRODUCT NO</PAN1DESCRIPTION>
  </Extra>
</CC5Response>

I need to get the data with the whole word "PAN" in it. I'll add this to the user's saved card info screen. I tried a few times but it didn't work. Here are the codes i tried

List<string> list = new List<string>();
list.add(responseFromServer); //"responseFromServer" data from api
string[] getPanArray = list.ToArray();
List<string> panlist = new List<string>();
string pan = "PAN";
foreach (var item in getPanArray)
{
    if (item.Contains(pan))
    {
       panlist.Add(item);
    }
 }

Latter

List<string> list = new List<string>();
list.Add(responseFromServer);
String[] test = list.ToArray();
String text = "PAN";
String[] result = test.Where(s =>
     {
       Boolean isInThere = true;
       Char[] textArray = text.ToCharArray();
        foreach (Char c in textArray)
        {
           if (!s.Contains(c))
                    isInThere = false;
         }
           return isInThere;
       }).ToArray();
foreach c# loops arrays
2 Answers

That is a horribly formatted XML, and its contents do not make any sense. For example, it says it has 3 PANs:

    <NUMBEROFPANS>3</NUMBEROFPANS>

But I only see two.

Furthermore, what is the purpose of having variable starting index and then have it the same for two entries?

    <PAN1INDEXORDER>1</PAN1INDEXORDER>

In short, this is next to impossible to parse easily using direct deserialization into classes which is how you are supposed to parse XML in C#.

The data from the API should be reformatted by the host to look like this before they send it to you:

<Extra>
    <Items>
        <Item>
            <INDEXORDER>1</INDEXORDER>
            <LABEL>PRICE</LABEL>
            <STATUS>NO</STATUS>
            <INDEXACCOUNTCLOSURE>00</INDEXACCOUNTCLOSURE>
            <OWNER>JOHN DAVIS</OWNER>
            <PAN>1111 22** **** 3333</PAN>
            <EXPIRY>02.2025</EXPIRY>
            <DESCRIPTION>PRODUCT NO</DESCRIPTION>
        </Item>
        <Item>
            <INDEXORDER>1</INDEXORDER>
            <LABEL>PRODUCT BUY</LABEL>
            <STATUS>NO</STATUS>
            <INDEXACCOUNTCLOSURE>00</INDEXACCOUNTCLOSURE>
            <OWNER>JOHN DAVIS</OWNER>
            <PAN>1111 22** **** 3333</PAN>
            <EXPIRY>00.1111</EXPIRY>
            <DESCRIPTION>DESCRIPION</DESCRIPTION>
        </Item>
    </Items>
    <SAFEKEYLASTMODIFIED>11/22/333</SAFEKEYLASTMODIFIED>
</Extra>

In order for it to be easily parsed. Then it is a simple matter of making model classes:

public class Item
{
    public int      IndexOrder;
    public string   Label;
    public string   Status;
    public int      IndexAccountClosure;
    public string   Owner;
    public string   PAN;
    public string   Expiry;
    public string   Description;
}

public class ExtraData
{
    public Item[]   Items;
    public string   SafeKeyLastModified;
}

public class CCSResponse
{
    public  int         ProcReturnCode;
    public  string      Response;
    public  ExtraData   Extra;
}

And then letting XMLSerializer do its job:

    string XMLTextFromAPI = YourAPICallHere();
    CCSResponse data;
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(CCSResponse));
    using (TextReader reader = new StringReader(XMLTextFromAPI)) {
        data = (CCSResponse)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
    }

Afterwards you can just access the data like this:

    foreach (Item i in data.Extra.Items) {
        // do whatever you need with those PANs
    }

Anything other than that, and you are asking for trouble both in writing and in maintaining that code later.

TL;DR — sometimes a proper solution is not to accept to work with garbage data that you are given and ask them to change it, at least that's what I would do if I were in your place.

I am sure someone else will post an actual answer on how to parse that garbage data which will probably involve regex or LINQ in some way.

Igor Levicki0

So, since responseFromServer is a string, first, parse the string into an XDocument.

using System.Xml.Linq;

...

var response = XDocument.Parse(responseFromServer);

Then you can use LINQ to filter out the elements you are interested in.

using System.Linq;

...

var justPans = response
                 .Element("CC5Response")
                 .Element("Extra")
                 .Elements().Where(e => e.Name.LocalName.Contains("PAN"));

Gives you an IEnumerable of XElement for just the PAN elements. Then you can extract the contexts of valid text elements.

var panContents = justPans
                      .Select(e => e.FirstNode)
                      .OfType<XText>()
                      .Select(t => t.Value)
                      .ToList();

This is demoed here.

Jodrell0
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