Parsing XML with C# - Not able to select Nodes while GetElementsByTagName working

Question

I'm trying to select nodes in c# within a XML file with below example.

<dsEq xmlns="http://tempuri.org/dsEq.xsd">
   <Dago>
      <EID>XX</EID> 

below code is working :

private static List<string> getListOfEID(XmlDocument xmlDoc)
{
    List<string> ListingEID = new List<string>();
    XmlNodeList nodeCollection = xmlDoc.GetElementsByTagName("EID");

    foreach (XmlNode elt in nodeCollection)
    {
        ListingEID.Add(elt.InnerText.ToString());
    }
    return ListingEID;
}

While I tried a lot of things, without success with Selectnodes method, not working :

private static List<string> getListOfEID(XmlDocument xmlDoc)
{
    List<string> ListingEID = new List<string>();
    XmlNodeList nodeCollection = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("/dsEq/Dago/EID");

    foreach (XmlNode elt in nodeCollection)
    {
        ListingEID.Add(elt.InnerText.ToString());
    }
    return ListingEID;
}

Thanks in advance !

tried a lot of different xPath without success.

adding nameSpace seems not helping

    private static List<string> getListOfEID(XmlDocument xmlDoc)
    {
        List<string> ListingEID = new List<string>();

        XmlNamespaceManager nameManager = new XmlNamespaceManager(xmlDoc.NameTable);
        nameManager.AddNamespace("myEID","/dsEq/Dago");

        XmlNodeList nodeCollection = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("myEID");

        foreach (XmlNode elt in nodeCollection)
        {
            ListingEID.Add(elt.InnerText.ToString());
        }
        return ListingEID;
    }

==> Show nil node

Answer 1

I too think it is super simple with Linq to XML as @Yitzhak Khabinsky showed already. Yours is not working because you are not using Xpath correctly.

void Main()
{
    var doc = new XmlDocument();
    doc.LoadXml(sample);
    var eids = getListOfEID(doc);
    foreach (var eid in eids)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(eid);
    }
}

private static List<string> getListOfEID(XmlDocument xmlDoc)
{
    List<string> ListingEID = new List<string>();

    XmlNamespaceManager nameManager = new XmlNamespaceManager(xmlDoc.NameTable);
    nameManager.AddNamespace("x","http://tempuri.org/dsEq.xsd");
    XmlNodeList nodeCollection = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("//x:EID", nameManager);

    foreach (XmlNode elt in nodeCollection)
    {
        ListingEID.Add(elt.InnerText.ToString());
    }
    return ListingEID;
}

static readonly string sample = @"<dsEq xmlns=""http://tempuri.org/dsEq.xsd"">
   <Dago>
      <EID>XX</EID>
    </Dago>
    <Dago>
      <EID>YY</EID>
    </Dago>
    <Dago>
      <EID>ZZ</EID>
    </Dago>
</dsEq>";

Answer 2

It is very easy via LINQ to XML.

LINQ to XML is available in the .Net Framework since 2007.

c#

void Main()
{
    XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Parse(@"<dsEq xmlns='http://tempuri.org/dsEq.xsd'>
            <Dago>
                <EID>XX</EID>
            </Dago>
            <Dago>
                <EID>YY</EID>
            </Dago>
        </dsEq>");
    
    XNamespace ns = xdoc.Root.GetDefaultNamespace();

    List<String> listOfStrings = xdoc.Descendants(ns + "EID")
      .Select(x => x.Value).ToList();
      
    Console.Write(listOfStrings);
}