CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#xmlxml-parsing
sd_dracula
sd_dracula

Reputation: 3896

XML selecting nodes values

I have the following XML:

<NET_SETTINGS>
   <MAC_ADDRESS VALUE="bb:cc:dd:ee:ff:aa"/>
   <IP_ADDRESS VALUE="10.1.1.1"/>
</NET_SETTINGS>

and trying to get the string VALUE of either mac/ip element like so:

XmlNode macnode = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("/NET_SETTINGS/IP_ADDRESS");
string mac = macnode.Value;

I can see that it selects the correct node while stepping through the code, but the macnode.Value is always null and the OuterXml is this:

"<MAC_ADDRESS VALUE=\"bb:cc:dd:ee:ff:aa\" />"

Why does Value not get populated correctly?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2229

Answers (5)

JLRishe
JLRishe

Reputation: 101690

You can actually do this all with one XPath selection:

XmlNode macnode = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("/NET_SETTINGS/IP_ADDRESS/@VALUE");
string mac = macnode.Value;

Upvotes: 0

rbtLong
rbtLong

Reputation: 1572

By default the Value property will return the inner of the XML element which does not exist in this case . . . 

<MAC_ADDRESS VALUE="bb:cc:dd:ee:ff:aa"/>

is equivalent to . . .

<MAC_ADDRESS VALUE="bb:cc:dd:ee:ff:aa"></MAC_ADDRESS>

The OuterXML will return the entire element markup. So thats why you get the entire element back.

Since you stored it as an attribute you have to refer to it as an attribute

XmlNode macnode = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("/NET_SETTINGS/IP_ADDRESS");
string mac = macnode.Attributes.GetNamedItem("VALUE").Value;

Should get you the correct value.

Upvotes: 2

I4V
I4V

Reputation: 35353

VALUE is an attribute.

string value = macnode.Attributes["VALUE"].Value

Upvotes: 2

Esailija
Esailija

Reputation: 140230

.Value is null for Element nodes.

You want macnode.Attributes.GetNamedItem("VALUE").Value

Upvotes: 4

Colselaw
Colselaw

Reputation: 1079

macnode.Value is the text value, not the value of the VALUE attribute. You need the Attributes property of macnode, then get the attribute value for the VALUE attribute from that. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlnode.attributes.aspx and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlattributecollection.aspx

Upvotes: 1

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