Working With XML in C#

If you're planning to develop and alter xml files, or if you have to deal with XML and C#, you might want to check out .NET, an excellent tool that provides terrific and incredibly easy to use facilities for making use of xml files.

The key benefits of making use of .NET and XML are further boosted with the help of a set of Linq classes this means you might even use them in more general conditions, which happens to be ideal if you aren't that skilled in XML as it makes working with XML far more easier, especially if you are a newbie.

What's especially attractive about Linq is that it uses a back to fundamentals approach in terms of working with XML when compared with other standard protocols like Xpath, DOM, SAX etc simply because these protocols tend to specialise or concentrate on just one particular area of XML, whereas Linq provides a more general and simple method to working with XML.

By way of one good example, let’s examine how Linq deals with a complicated data structure like a tree as a result of XElement.

There's two core XML tags in XElement, <record> and </record>, so basically an opening and closing tag.

The guidelines are very simple and common with other markup languages like html, tags should be in matched pairs and you may nest tags So as an example if you have tag opened with <colour>, you need a closing tag </colour>.

As a side note, you may as well use an XML C# tool to produce C# code out of your xml or xml schema, which is perfect for newcomers or maybe you want to save time and also have correct, error free code.

The only exemption to the matched pair principle is if you make use of an own closing tag like <colour/> which is a tag that closes itself.

So using tags in XElement it is very easy and also straightforward to develop a tree like structure, you can also represent your tree in a program through a class.

The important point is the fact XElement encompasses a Nodes collection which is often useful to store an element’s child elements.

The whole idea about nesting XElements within XElements is pretty straightforward nevertheless , you might also do this in another, more flamboyant means, employing something named an Add method or applying an Add method in a single call.

The subsequent example ought to underscore this;

colour1.Add(colour2,colour3);

It is also possible to construct a list of child objects for placing into multiple XElement if you like or use an XElement constructor as another way to construct your XML tree.

Another way is to apply a nested method in which you use an XElement with children and continue to the levels that you want, this is known as a “functional construction” which, if you format it properly, it will look the same as the tree its is constructing and what’s more, it is also possible to pass it to any method that needs to work with it.

Lastly, you can moreover make use of the Parse and static Load methods to convert your XML into an XElement tree.

The Load method functions by taking your file specification as a URI (or as a TextReader or XmlReader) and parsing the text stream into your XElement tree.

The parse ,technique will work much the same way other than it takes a string of XML tags. The principal point of note is that you could have to manage any ensuing exceptions yourself if your XML is not right, the parsing will not work.

To conclude, there are a variety of possibilities for developing or modifying XML files in C#, as well as manual coding, or you could make use of an XML C# tool such as Liquid XML C# tool, which in turn saves you time in producing thousands of lines of problem free code, instantly from your xml or schema file.