Using LINQ to XML to get specific descendants node value

Question

I have an XML document I am trying to query with LINQ to XML. The XML is ..

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<response>
  <operation>
    <authentication>
      <username>redacted</username>
      <isauthenticated>true</<isauthenticated>>
    </authentication>
    <result>
      <status>success</status>
      <other-elements></<other-elements>
      <other-elements></<other-elements>
      <other-elements>
        <other-sub-elements></other-sub-elements>
        <other-sub-elements></other-sub-elements>
      </<other-elements>
    </result>
  </operation>
</response>

I am trying to read the value of the node <status> to determine if the API call was successful. I am having trouble putting together the LINQ syntax necessary to grab the value of the <status node. I thought I could use XPath syntax as such to grab the value.

XDocument xml = XDocument.Parse(xmlResponse);
string returnValue = = xml.Descendants("result/status").Select(x => x.Name).ToString();

However, I am getting the following error ..

The '/' character, hexadecimal value 0x2F, cannot be included in a name.

xml.Descendants("status).Where(n => n.Parent.LocalName = "result") or something along xml.Descendants("result").Elements("result") — Pawel
– Pawel, Commented Jan 11, 2018 at 16:27

Sebastian Hofmann · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-01 13:41:50Z

2

Try this code:

XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Parse(@"
<response>
  <operation>
    <authentication>
      <username>redacted</username>
      <isauthenticated>true</isauthenticated>
    </authentication>
    <result>
      <status>success</status>
    </result>
  </operation>
</response>

");

Boolean isSuccess;
String s = xdoc.Element("response").Element("operation").Element("result").Element("status").Value;

isSuccess = s == "success";

It gets the value of the status element and checks whether it is equal to a specific value; in this case, isSuccess will be true.

edited Jul 1, 2018 at 13:41

answered Jan 18, 2018 at 7:21

Sebastian Hofmann

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Comments

Jeff Mercado · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-18 18:48:07Z

1

The LINQ-to-XML methods Elements() and Descendants() only deal with single names, not xpath-like paths. If you want to give an xpath expression, use the xpath extensions.

// using System.Xml.Linq;
var status = (string)xml.XPathSelectElement("//result/status");

Otherwise you need to build up an equivalent query using the methods correctly.

var status = (string)xml.Descendants("result").Elements("status").FirstOrDefault();

answered Jan 18, 2018 at 18:48

Jeff Mercado

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