Getting data from XML via LINQ and displaying it on a View?

Question

I'm using the following code to grab data from an XML document:

XDocument xml = XDocument.Load(xmlPath);

var bikes = from b in xml.Descendants("Photo")
            select new
            {
                date = (DateTime)b.Element("Date"),
                staffno = (Int32)b.Element("StaffNo"),
                file = (string)b.Element("File"),
                crimeref = (string)b.Element("CrimeRef")
            };

If I use something like var selectedBikes = bikes.Count();, I can see there are 4 bikes in total. However I'm not sure how to actually get that data into a list so that I can display it on my view using Razor.

I've tried bikes.Select(), bikes.All() and a few others but haven't had any joy.

Answer 1

  var lstBikes = bikes.ToList();  // or .ToArray(); your choice.

Now, bikes as it is, is an IEnumerable, so you can just passed that to the view. You'll probably also want to define a Photo class, and use it like this:

        class Photo
        {
            DateTime date  {get; set;}
            Int32 staffno {get; set;}
            string file {get; set;}
            string crimeref {get; set;}
        };

 // :
 var bikes = from b in xml.Descendants("Photo")
        select new Photo
        {
            date = (DateTime)b.Element("Date"),
            staffno = (Int32)b.Element("StaffNo"),
            file = (string)b.Element("File"),
            crimeref = (string)b.Element("CrimeRef")
        };

Then you can say @model IEnumerable<Photo> in your view.

Answer 2

Sorry if I am mistaken because haven't worked with xml files for a while, but usually LINQ returns a IEnumerable<> object. So if you want to use it as a list you can get it as bikes.ToList() / Which will enumerate your object you should keep that in mind /. Also, if you are not going to add/remove items from the IEnumerable object in the view (which is not a good idea usually, keep your logic outside of your view and just display data there) you can simple iterate through the result with a foreach loop.