CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#vb.netsyntax
TheOtherGuy
TheOtherGuy

Reputation:

vb.net triple dot syntax for linq to xml

I ran into this answer which had a triple dot syntax in VB.NET that I have never seen before.

The query looks like this

Dim result =
   From xcmp In azm...<Item>.<ItemPrice>.<Component>
   Where xcmp.<Type>.Value = "Principal"
   Select Convert.ToDecimal(xcmp.<Amount>.Value)

I tried to search on google about this triple dot syntax but I didn't get anything.

Can someone point to to some documentation about this syntax and I was also wondering it will work with C# or if there is an equivalent ?

Thanks

Upvotes: 5

Views: 1674

Answers (3)

mattmc3
mattmc3

Reputation: 18345

The answer you're referring to was mine from another question, and the triple dot is just a shortcut for calling .Descendants(). C# doesn't support inline XML, so you'll have to call the methods unless you're in VB. Here's the mapping:

  • VB.NET shortcut := C# method
  • ...<node> := .Descendants("node")
  • .<node> := .Elements("node")
  • .@attr := .Attribute("attr").Value

You can see all of these from VB's intellisense.

VB.NET intellisense

Upvotes: 4

Konrad Rudolph
Konrad Rudolph

Reputation: 545913

The triple dots is a “descendant axis” which is used to access a list of XML nodes of a given name in XML literal syntax (“LINQ to XML”):

Gets all name elements of the [parent] element, regardless of how deep in the hierarchy they occur.

This syntax doesn’t exist in C#, only in VB (for the moment).

Upvotes: 6

Tobias Schittkowski
Tobias Schittkowski

Reputation: 2251

When using ... instead of ., you refer not to the direct child <Item>, but to any <Item> in the hierarchy tree.

So <A>...<B> give a result for

<A>
  <X1>
    <X2>
      <B></B>
   </X2>
  </X1>
</A>

whereas <A>.<B> would give no result in this example...

Upvotes: 8

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