How to: Write a LINQ to XML Axis Method
You can write your own axis methods to retrieve collections from an XML tree. One of the best ways to do this is to write an extension method that returns a collection of elements or attributes. You can write your extension method to return specific subsets of elements or attributes, based on the requirements of your application.
Example
The following example uses two extension methods. The first extension method, GetXPath, operates on XObject, and returns an XPath expression that when evaluated will return the node or attribute. The second extension method, Find, operates on XElement. It returns a collection of XAttribute objects and XElement objects that contain some specified text.
This example uses the following XML document: Sample XML File: Multiple Purchase Orders (LINQ to XML).
Note
The following example uses the yield return construct of C#. Because there is no equivalent feature in Visual Basic 2008, this example is provided only in C#.
public static class MyExtensions
{
private static string GetQName(XElement xe)
{
string prefix = xe.GetPrefixOfNamespace(xe.Name.Namespace);
if (xe.Name.Namespace == XNamespace.None || prefix == null)
return xe.Name.LocalName.ToString();
else
return prefix + ":" + xe.Name.LocalName.ToString();
}
private static string GetQName(XAttribute xa)
{
string prefix =
xa.Parent.GetPrefixOfNamespace(xa.Name.Namespace);
if (xa.Name.Namespace == XNamespace.None || prefix == null)
return xa.Name.ToString();
else
return prefix + ":" + xa.Name.LocalName;
}
private static string NameWithPredicate(XElement el)
{
if (el.Parent != null && el.Parent.Elements(el.Name).Count() != 1)
return GetQName(el) + "[" +
(el.ElementsBeforeSelf(el.Name).Count() + 1) + "]";
else
return GetQName(el);
}
public static string StrCat<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source,
string separator)
{
return source.Aggregate(new StringBuilder(),
(sb, i) => sb
.Append(i.ToString())
.Append(separator),
s => s.ToString());
}
public static string GetXPath(this XObject xobj)
{
if (xobj.Parent == null)
{
XDocument doc = xobj as XDocument;
if (doc != null)
return ".";
XElement el = xobj as XElement;
if (el != null)
return "/" + NameWithPredicate(el);
// the XPath data model does not include white space text nodes
// that are children of a document, so this method returns null.
XText xt = xobj as XText;
if (xt != null)
return null;
XComment com = xobj as XComment;
if (com != null)
return
"/" +
(
com
.Document
.Nodes()
.OfType<XComment>()
.Count() != 1 ?
"comment()[" +
(com
.NodesBeforeSelf()
.OfType<XComment>()
.Count() + 1) +
"]" :
"comment()"
);
XProcessingInstruction pi = xobj as XProcessingInstruction;
if (pi != null)
return
"/" +
(
pi.Document.Nodes()
.OfType<XProcessingInstruction>()
.Count() != 1 ?
"processing-instruction()[" +
(pi
.NodesBeforeSelf()
.OfType<XProcessingInstruction>()
.Count() + 1) +
"]" :
"processing-instruction()"
);
return null;
}
else
{
XElement el = xobj as XElement;
if (el != null)
{
return
"/" +
el
.Ancestors()
.InDocumentOrder()
.Select(e => NameWithPredicate(e))
.StrCat("/") +
NameWithPredicate(el);
}
XAttribute at = xobj as XAttribute;
if (at != null)
return
"/" +
at
.Parent
.AncestorsAndSelf()
.InDocumentOrder()
.Select(e => NameWithPredicate(e))
.StrCat("/") +
"@" + GetQName(at);
XComment com = xobj as XComment;
if (com != null)
return
"/" +
com
.Parent
.AncestorsAndSelf()
.InDocumentOrder()
.Select(e => NameWithPredicate(e))
.StrCat("/") +
(
com
.Parent
.Nodes()
.OfType<XComment>()
.Count() != 1 ?
"comment()[" +
(com
.NodesBeforeSelf()
.OfType<XComment>()
.Count() + 1) + "]" :
"comment()"
);
XCData cd = xobj as XCData;
if (cd != null)
return
"/" +
cd
.Parent
.AncestorsAndSelf()
.InDocumentOrder()
.Select(e => NameWithPredicate(e))
.StrCat("/") +
(
cd
.Parent
.Nodes()
.OfType<XText>()
.Count() != 1 ?
"text()[" +
(cd
.NodesBeforeSelf()
.OfType<XText>()
.Count() + 1) + "]" :
"text()"
);
XText tx = xobj as XText;
if (tx != null)
return
"/" +
tx
.Parent
.AncestorsAndSelf()
.InDocumentOrder()
.Select(e => NameWithPredicate(e))
.StrCat("/") +
(
tx
.Parent
.Nodes()
.OfType<XText>()
.Count() != 1 ?
"text()[" +
(tx
.NodesBeforeSelf()
.OfType<XText>()
.Count() + 1) + "]" :
"text()"
);
XProcessingInstruction pi = xobj as XProcessingInstruction;
if (pi != null)
return
"/" +
pi
.Parent
.AncestorsAndSelf()
.InDocumentOrder()
.Select(e => NameWithPredicate(e))
.StrCat("/") +
(
pi
.Parent
.Nodes()
.OfType<XProcessingInstruction>()
.Count() != 1 ?
"processing-instruction()[" +
(pi
.NodesBeforeSelf()
.OfType<XProcessingInstruction>()
.Count() + 1) + "]" :
"processing-instruction()"
);
return null;
}
}
public static IEnumerable<XObject> Find(this XElement source, string value)
{
if (source.Attributes().Any())
{
foreach (XAttribute att in source.Attributes())
{
string contents = (string)att;
if (contents.Contains(value))
yield return att;
}
}
if (source.Elements().Any())
{
foreach (XElement child in source.Elements())
foreach (XObject s in child.Find(value))
yield return s;
}
else
{
string contents = (string)source;
if (contents.Contains(value))
yield return source;
}
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
XElement purchaseOrders = XElement.Load("PurchaseOrders.xml");
IEnumerable<XObject> subset =
from xobj in purchaseOrders.Find("1999")
select xobj;
foreach (XObject obj in subset)
{
Console.WriteLine(obj.GetXPath());
if (obj.GetType() == typeof(XElement))
Console.WriteLine(((XElement)obj).Value);
else if (obj.GetType() == typeof(XAttribute))
Console.WriteLine(((XAttribute)obj).Value);
}
}
}
This code produces the following output:
/PurchaseOrders/PurchaseOrder[1]/@OrderDate
1999-10-20
/PurchaseOrders/PurchaseOrder[1]/Items/Item[2]/ShipDate
1999-05-21
/PurchaseOrders/PurchaseOrder[2]/@OrderDate
1999-10-22
/PurchaseOrders/PurchaseOrder[3]/@OrderDate
1999-10-22