CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#xmllinqlinq-to-xml
Turp
Turp

Reputation: 708

Reading Specific Set Of XML Nodes via LINQ

I have an XML file that looks like this...

<return>
  <availableOptions>
    <premiums>
      <item>
        <productCode>Poroduct Code 1</productCode>
        <productDescription>Product Desc 1</productDescription>
        <coverageCode>Coverage Code 1</coverageCode>
        <coverageDescription>Coverage Description 1</coverageDescription>
      </item>
      <item>
        <productCode>Poroduct Code 2</productCode>
        <productDescription>Product Desc 2</productDescription>
        <coverageCode>Coverage Code 2</coverageCode>
        <coverageDescription>Coverage Description 2</coverageDescription>
        <coverageOptions>
          <item>
            <label>label here</label>
            <value>true</value>
            <key>key</key>
          </item>
          <item>
            <label>label here</label>
            <value>true</value>
            <key>key</key>
          </item>
        </coverageOptions>
        <surcharges/>
      </item>
      <item>
         etc...
      </item>
      <item>
         etc...
      </item>
    </premiums>
  </availableOptions>
</return>

My goal is to: find all the unique coverageCodes

I have the following LINQ code:

XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load("data.xml");

var linq = from item in xdoc.Descendants("premiums").Descendants("item")
            select new
            {
                ProductCode = item.Element("productCode").Value,
                CoverageCode = item.Element("coverageCode").Value
            };

foreach (var node in linq)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Product Code: " + node.ProductCode + ", Coverage Code: " + node.CoverageCode);
}

The first <item> outputs correctly. However, when it gets to the second <item> it throws an error Object reference not set to an instance of an object because it's looking for the productCode and coverageCode in the coverageOptions/item node, but there isn't any.

I do not want it to look there.

How can i have the LINQ just focus on the first <item> instead? I also would like the productCode and coverageCode to be distinct. In this XML file, there are multiple <item> that have the same productCode and coverageCode nodes.

Thank you very much in advance!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 226

Answers (1)

Jon Skeet
Jon Skeet

Reputation: 1499770

How can i have the LINQ just focus on the first <item> instead?

I assume you don't just want the very first <item>, but each top-level <item>. Just change Descendants("item") to Elements("item"). That way it will only look for immediate children of premiums instead of all descendant elements.

For the distinct part, you should be able to just use linq.Distinct(). Anonymous types implement equality and hash code generation appropriately. (It will only look for distinct combinations, mind you - if you have two items with the same product code but different coverage codes for example, they will still be viewed as distinct.)

Upvotes: 3

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