Get all tags of the same tag name regardless of level in XML File with C#

Question

I have the following method and xml file below. The method filters the content of all "Tag4" elements and inserts it into a list. Unfortunately, I have the problem that with several child elements the method does not quite work anymore. Then only the content: "Content1" is added to the list and the rest is ignored.

Methode:

public List Method(string sourcePath)
{
    string directory = sourcePath;
    var resultList = new List();

    try
    {
        XDocument xdocument = XDocument.Load(directory);
        IEnumerable tags = xdocument.Root.Elements().Elements().Where(x => x.Name.LocalName.Equals("Tag4"));
        foreach (var tag in tags)
        {
            var value = tag?.Value;
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(value) && !resultList.Contains(value))
            {
                resultList.Add(value);
            }
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
    }
    return resultList;
}

XML:

How can I change the method to take all elements from the tag4 regardless of their level. So I also mean: "Content2", "Content3", "Content4"

user_2501279 · Answer

Try using Descendants() method:

Returns a collection of the descendant elements for this document or element, in document order.

IEnumerable tags = xdocument.Root.Descendants()
    .Where(e => e.Name.LocalName == "Tag4")

user_11196038 · Answer

You do not even need linq for it. There is method Descendants() which allow you to get all elements with name that is passed as argument.

Example in your code:

        public List Method(string sourcePath)
        {
            string directory = sourcePath;
            var resultList = new List();

            try
            {
                XDocument xdocument = XDocument.Load(directory);
                var docNamespace = xdocument.Root.Name.Namespace;
                var tags = xdocument.Descendants(docNamespace + "Tag4");

                foreach (var tag in tags)
                {
                    var value = tag?.Value;
                    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(value) && !resultList.Contains(value))
                    {
                        resultList.Add(value);
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
            }
            return resultList;
        }

Get all tags of the same tag name regardless of level in XML File with C#

2 Answers