Reading & Modifying XML Data in C#

[GrgBalden]

Hi Guys Hope you can help. I'm writing a program to do a record count within an XML file The XML file is structured as per below:

<WEBRequest>
<Request>
<BlockA>
<REC>
<CustomerNumber></CustomerNumber>
<FirstName></FirstName>
<LastName></LastName>
<Email></Email>
</REC>
</BlockA>
<BlockB>
<REC>
<FirstName></FirstName>
<LastName></LastName>
<OrderDetail></OrderDetail>
<PartType></PartType>
</REC>
<REC>
<FirstName></FirstName>
<LastName></LastName>
<OrderDetail></OrderDetail>
<PartType></PartType>
</REC>
<REC>
<FirstName></FirstName>
<LastName></LastName>
<OrderDetail></OrderDetail>
<PartType></PartType>
</REC>
</BlockB>
<BlockC>
....
....
....
....
</BlockC>
....
....
....
</Request>

What I need to do is count and output number of <REC>'s for each <Block> element and output to a cell within excel (Excel Automation is working). E.g. BlockA = 1 REC BlockB = 3 REC . . . BlockM = 32 REC I have the excel automated correctly, however, I'm afraid that my inexperience with XML is quite telling, so I dont have a clear idea on how to do the record count. Thanks in advance!!! Grg!

[Dan Mos]

Using XDocument it's quite easy:

       XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("YourXMLHere.xml");
        
       var distinctBlocks = from rec in doc.Descendants()
                              where rec.Name.ToString().StartsWith("Block")
                              select rec;
        
        var results = from rec in distinctBlocks.Descendants("REC")
                      select rec;
        
        var output = (from rec in results
                     group rec by rec.Parent.Name into g
                     select new {Block = g.Key, Count = g.Count()}).ToList();

        //dataGridView1.DataSource = output;

modified on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 3:55 PM

[GrgBalden]

Thanks for Info! I don't suppose you have the c# code?

[Dan Mos]

GrgBalden wrote:

I don't suppose you have the c# code?

That was C#(3) code. Using XLinq => Linq to XML.

modified on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 10:33 AM

[GrgBalden]

Hi can anyone else help with this, I'm somewhat limited to c#2 (using VS2005)??

[Dan Mos]

here you go. I created a dummy class that holds the Block name and the rec count:

public class BlockCount
{
    private int count = 0;
    public int Count
    {
        get { return count; }
        set { count = value; }
    }

    private string block;
    public string Block
    {
        get { return block; }
        set { block = value; }
    }
}

private void button1\_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
        doc.Load("Abs.xml");

        //get the requestNodes
        XmlNodeList requests = doc.GetElementsByTagName("Request");

        if (requests != null && requests.Count > 0)
        {
            blocks = new List<BlockCount>();
            //now get the blocks nodes
            foreach (XmlNode nd in requests)
            {      
                foreach (XmlNode blck in nd.ChildNodes)
                {
                    //create a new instance of the class
                    BlockCount c = new BlockCount();
                    //set the name of the block                        
                    c.Block = blck.Name;
                    foreach (XmlNode rec in blck.ChildNodes)
                    {
                        c.Count++;
                    }
                    blocks.Add(c);
                }                    
            }
        }
        //this is just for testing the results witch are fine by the way
        dataGridView1.DataSource = blocks;
    }
}

modified on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 2:11 PM

[GrgBalden]

Thank you kindly!!! Will give this a go tommorow!