Thread: XML string to dataset/datagrid?

A DataGrid bound to a DataTable would probably be best if you want to break down the elements into table format, using columns and rows. By the way, you had columns and rows backwards. Number of columns is the width and number of rows is the height. This way you set up your column names by each element and just add a rows (as many as you want) with each line from the xml file. Here is some code that i used to create a DataTable and bind it to a datagrid. This took information from a database though, not an xml file.

There are some class data members that arent shown, such as dbCommand, and dbConn, and the dbReader are all class scope, but you shouldn't need those to get the idea.

golfRoundDG is the DataGrid i used to display the player's round information.

Code:

      private void UpdatePlayerRounds()
      {
         DataTable playerRoundsTable = new DataTable();
         DataRow roundRow;

         try
         {
            // Set the query command string.
            cmdString = "Select * From roundOfGolfTable " +
                        "WHERE [playerName] = '" +
                        golferNameComboBox.Text + "'";

            dbCommand.CommandText = cmdString;
            dbCommand.Connection = dbConn;

            // Execute the Command string.
            dbReader = dbCommand.ExecuteReader();

            // Read each column name and add to the DataTable.
            for (int tmp = 0; tmp < dbReader.FieldCount; tmp++)
            {
               playerRoundsTable.Columns.Add(dbReader.GetName(tmp));
            }

            // Read each row from the query and add each row to the DataTable.
            while (dbReader.Read())
            {
               roundRow = playerRoundsTable.NewRow();

               for (int tmp2 = 0; tmp2 < dbReader.FieldCount; tmp2++)
               {
                  // If roundDate column is being added, format string to short date.
                  if (dbReader.GetName(tmp2) == "roundDate")
                  {
                     roundRow[dbReader.GetName(tmp2)] =
                           dbReader.GetDateTime(tmp2).ToShortDateString();
                  }
                  else
                  {
                     roundRow[dbReader.GetName(tmp2)] = dbReader.GetValue(tmp2);
                  }
               }
               playerRoundsTable.Rows.Add(roundRow);
            }

            dbReader.Close();

            // Associate the datagrid to the DataTable and display only 3 columns.
            golfRoundDG.AutoGenerateColumns = false;
            golfRoundDG.DataSource = playerRoundsTable;
            scoreCol.DataPropertyName = "roundScore";
            courseCol.DataPropertyName = "courseName";
            dateCol.DataPropertyName = "roundDate";
         }
         catch (Exception exc)
         {
            MessageBox.Show(exc.Message);
         }
      }

Here is a quicky example on how to use the information once its bound to the DataGrid.

Code:

      private void calcHandicapBtn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
      {
         DataRowView selectedRound;
         DataRowView selectedPlayer;
         DataRow selectedCourse;
         double finalHandicap;

         try
         {
            if (golfRoundDG.RowCount != 0)
            {
               // Gets the selected player's data.
               selectedPlayer = (DataRowView)golferNameComboBox.SelectedItem;

               double[] diffArray = new double[golfRoundDG.RowCount];

               for (int index = 0; index < golfRoundDG.RowCount; index++)
               {
                  DataTable courseInfoTable = new DataTable();
                  DataRow courseRow;

                  // Gets the next round's data.
                  selectedRound = (DataRowView)golfRoundDG.Rows[index].DataBoundItem;

                  // Set the query command string.
                  cmdString = "Select * From courseTable " +
                              "WHERE [courseName] = '" +
                              selectedRound["courseName"].ToString() + "';";
                  dbCommand.CommandText = cmdString;
                  dbCommand.Connection = dbConn;

                  // Execute the command string.
                  dbReader = dbCommand.ExecuteReader();

                  // Read each column name and add to the DataTable.
                  for (int tmp = 0; tmp < dbReader.FieldCount; tmp++)
                  {
                     courseInfoTable.Columns.Add(dbReader.GetName(tmp));
                  }

                  // Read the row from the query.
                  dbReader.Read();

                  courseRow = courseInfoTable.NewRow();

                  for (int tmp2 = 0; tmp2 < dbReader.FieldCount; tmp2++)
                  {
                     courseRow[dbReader.GetName(tmp2)] = dbReader.GetValue(tmp2);
                  }

                  // Add the filled row into the DataTable.
                  courseInfoTable.Rows.Add(courseRow);
                  selectedCourse = courseInfoTable.Rows[0];

                  dbReader.Close();


                  // Determine if player is a male or female and calculate index.
                  // Equation: (Score - Course Rating) x 113 / Slope Rating.
                  if (selectedPlayer["playerGender"].ToString() == "M")
                  {
                     diffArray[index] = (
                        ((Convert.ToDouble(selectedRound["roundScore"])
                         - Convert.ToDouble(selectedCourse["courseRating"])) * 113)
                         / Convert.ToDouble(selectedCourse["menSlope"])
                        );
                  }
                  else if (selectedPlayer["playerGender"].ToString() == "F")
                  {
                     diffArray[index] = (
                        ((Convert.ToDouble(selectedRound["roundScore"])
                         - Convert.ToDouble(selectedCourse["courseRating"])) * 113)
                         / Convert.ToDouble(selectedCourse["womenSlope"])
                        );
                  }
               }

               // Use the indexes to calculate the handicap.
               finalHandicap = CalculateHandicapWithIndexes(diffArray);

               handicapLabel.Text = finalHandicap.ToString("F1");
            }
            else
            {
               MessageBox.Show("This player has no rounds to calculate a handicap.");
            }
         }
         catch (Exception exc)
         {
            MessageBox.Show("Could Not Calculate the Handicap.");
            MessageBox.Show(exc.Message);
         }
      }

Wow, what a horrible looking XML file (looks like the gobbledy-goop often generated from Microsoft applications...)

anyways, Why don't you use Linq to XML? You could make real short work of this...

Suppose I have the following XML file:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Products>
	<Product>
		<ID>12345</ID>
		<Name>Widget</Name>
		<Price>12.95</Price>
	</Product>
	<Product>
		<ID>09876</ID>
		<Name>Discombobulator</Name>
		<Price>999.95</Price>
	</Product>
	<Product>
		<ID>37465</ID>
		<Name>Super Juicer</Name>
		<Price>165.00</Price>
	</Product>
</Products>

I could do the following in C#:

Code:

XElement xmlProducts = XElement.Load("Path/To/Products.xml");

        var products =
            from product in xmlProducts.Elements("Product")
            select new
            {
                ID = product.Element("ID").Value,
                Name = product.Element("Name").Value,
                Price = Convert.ToDouble(product.Element("Price").Value)
            };

        productsDataGrid.DataSource = products;
        productsDataGrid.DataBind();

or using lambda syntax :

Code:

var products = xmlProducts.Elements("Product")
   .Select(p => new
    {
        ID = p.Element("ID").Value,
        Name = p.Element("Name").Value,
        Price = Convert.ToDouble(p.Element("Price").Value)
    });

Other configuration options could be set, like how many columns to display, etc. But you get the point.

You can also create XML documents just as easy with XElement (it's 2010, don't use XmlDocument() anymore, geez).