loading xml data into strings

[Mastermosley]

I have an xml file with:

<UserAccounts>
<Account username="username">
<password="password"/>
<banned="no"/>
<ipbann="no"/>
<inactive="no"/>
</Account>
</UserAccounts>

I want to load each one of the elements into separate strings at runtime. I've been messing around with XMLTextReader for a few hours and am starting to wonder if thats what I use. To be honest I've never incorporated Xml into any programming projects at all so any help or ideas would definitely be appreciated thanks.

[IceDane]

This can be done very easily using the System.Xml.Linq namespace.

Use XElement.

For example:

XElement root = XElement.Load("PathToFile");

Console.WriteLine(root.Descendants("password").Value);

[Mastermosley]

Ok I'm testing this right now, I would I program a loop to check for all <Account username="
and load them into a textbox or listbox.

[Mastermosley]

Your way never really worked, the .value didnt exist so I did it like this to load the data into a list.

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
StreamReader stream = new StreamReader(XmlDoc);
doc.Load(stream);
foreach (XmlNode node in doc.DocumentElement.ChildNodes)
{
lstUsers.Items.Add(node.Attributes["username"].Value);
}
stream.Close();

That succesfully loads all usernames into the listbox. If you look above my xml file contains boolean values and password in each username tag. I have a textbox on the form that I want to load with the data so what I really want to do is load all the childnodes from the username attribute into a string array. Then when the user clicks on one of the username values in the listbox it will load the information into the textbox.

Also just a question I noticed that you can load the xml file into a string or a file stream, what is the difference?

[IceDane]

Your way never really worked, the .value didnt exist so I did it like this to load the data into a list.

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
StreamReader stream = new StreamReader(XmlDoc);
doc.Load(stream);
foreach (XmlNode node in doc.DocumentElement.ChildNodes)
{
lstUsers.Items.Add(node.Attributes["username"].Value);
}
stream.Close();

That succesfully loads all usernames into the listbox. If you look above my xml file contains boolean values and password in each username tag. I have a textbox on the form that I want to load with the data so what I really want to do is load all the childnodes from the username attribute into a string array. Then when the user clicks on one of the username values in the listbox it will load the information into the textbox.

Also just a question I noticed that you can load the xml file into a string or a file stream, what is the difference?

I'm sorry - I gave you incorrect information.

Since it's LINQ, it seems to return an IEnumerable collection of descendants matching "password" in the code supplied above. This code does what's intended:

XElement root = XElement.Load(@"PathHere");

            XElement passwordElement = root.Descendants("password").Single();

            Console.WriteLine(passwordElement.Name + " = " + passwordElement.Value);

You can also use the Elements member function to print all child elements that are direct children(So to speak), as opposed to children of children.

Here's an example of a function that prints all child elements in a tree structure recursively. The PrintTabs is merely for the aesthetics.

class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            XElement root = XElement.Load(@"PathHere");

            PrintChildElements(root, 0);

            Console.ReadKey();
        }

        public static void PrintChildElements(XElement element, int tabCount)
        {
            foreach (var child in element.Elements())
            {
                PrintTabs(tabCount);
                Console.WriteLine(child.Name);
                if (child.HasElements)
                    PrintChildElements(child, tabCount + 1);

            }
        }

        public static void PrintTabs(int tabCount)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < tabCount; i++)
            {
                Console.Write("\t");
            }
        }
    }

I'm not sure I understood what you meant by your last question - care to elaborate further?

[Mastermosley]

Well you can do this:

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load(PathToXML)

or I can

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
FileStream fs = new FileStream(PathToXML, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Write)
doc.Load(fs);

What would be the difference?

Also, I want to no the advantages and disadvantages of using: XmlDocument , XPathDocument, XmlReader and XmlWriter classes. My application is going to be using a few large xml databases and I want reading and writing to be fast. All I know about them is XmlDocument loads the entire xml file into memory while the others dont?

[IceDane]

Well you can do this:

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load(PathToXML)

or I can

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
FileStream fs = new FileStream(PathToXML, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Write)
doc.Load(fs);

What would be the difference?

Also, I want to no the advantages and disadvantages of using: XmlDocument , XPathDocument, XmlReader and XmlWriter classes. My application is going to be using a few large xml databases and I want reading and writing to be fast. All I know about them is XmlDocument loads the entire xml file into memory while the others dont?

There is no real difference - it all depends on your program. It simply has many different constructors for the programmer's convenience, as he might have the path, or just a filestream in which the file is already opened.

I'm not sure about the performance of those classes - sounds like something you should ask google, as someone has probably asked this question before.