I have an XML Data Source which contains a list of key/value pairs. I'm looking for a simple way to load the same data into an array or some other data structure so that I can easily look up the data. I can bind it to a GridView with a couple of clicks but I'm failing to find a straightforward way to load it into something that isn't a UI Control.
My data source looks like:
<SiteMap>
<Sections>
<Section Folder="TradeVolumes" TabIndex="1" />
<Section Folder="TradeBreaks" TabIndex="2" />
</Sections>
</SiteMap>
I'm wanting to load key value pairs (Folder, TabIndex)
What is the best way to load the data?
Using Linq to XML :
var doc = XDocument.Parse(xmlAsString);
var dict = new Dictionary<string, int>();
foreach (var section in doc.Root.Element("Sections").Elements("Section"))
{
dict.Add(section.Attribute("Folder").Value, int.Parse(section.Attribute("TabIndex").Value));
}
You get a dictionary, which is basically a collection of key/value pairs
Load it into a DataSet with the function
.ReadXml(string path)
with your data you will have a dataset with 2 tables:
Sections
| section_id |
|------------|
| 0 |
Section
| Folder | TableIndex | Section_Id |
|----------------------------------------|
| TradeVolumes | 1 | 0 |
| TradeBreaks | 2 | 0 |
You can do something like this, The code below is based on the on the xml you have included in your questions.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
namespace SimpleTestConsole
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string xmlFile =
@"<SiteMap> <Sections><Section Folder=""TradeVolumes"" TabIndex=""1"" /> <Section Folder=""TradeBreaks"" TabIndex=""2"" /> </Sections></SiteMap>";
XmlDocument currentDocument = new XmlDocument();
try
{
currentDocument.LoadXml(xmlFile);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw ex;
}
string path = "SiteMap/Sections";
XmlNodeList nodeList = currentDocument.SelectNodes(path);
IDictionary<string, string> keyValuePairList = new Dictionary<string, string>();
foreach (XmlNode node in nodeList)
{
foreach (XmlNode innerNode in node.ChildNodes)
{
if (innerNode.Attributes != null && innerNode.Attributes.Count == 2)
{
keyValuePairList.Add(new KeyValuePair<string, string>(innerNode.Attributes[0].Value, innerNode.Attributes[1].Value));
}
}
}
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> pair in keyValuePairList)
{
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0} : {1}", pair.Key, pair.Value));
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
Use XmlSerializer and deserialize it into your own type. Then use it as datasource
Quite straightforward example can be found here - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms950721.aspx