Objective:

This article is going to explain, How to create XML Tree using LINQ? This will be explaining Functional Construction way of creating XML tree. There are three samples given in this article. One for basic XML tree construction, one to construct from array of objects and last to construct XML tree from content of a DB table.

Functional Construction

LINQ to XML provides a powerful way to construct XML tree, and this way is called Functional Construction. Functional Construction is the ability to create XML tree in one line of code. Various classes to be used from LINQ to XML programming interface to enable functional construction. XElement is most important among them.

XElement class

1. This class represents XML element.
2. This class is inside the namespace System.Xml.Linq
3. This class is used to construct XML.
4. This class takes various types of arguments for content.
5. This is extended from XContainer class and XContainer class is extended from XNode class.
6. Some method of this class could be used from the XAML.

1. A string, which is added as text content. This is the recommended pattern to add a string as the value of an element.
2. An XText, which can have either a string or CData value, added as child content.
3. A XElement, which is added as a child element.
4. A XAttribute, which is added as an attribute.
5. An XProcessingInstruction or XComment, which is added as child content.
6. An IEnumerable, which is enumerated, and these rules are applied recursively.
7. Anything else, ToString() is called and the result is added as text content.
8. Null, which is ignored.

);

Output

1. I will create a class called Author
2. I will create a list of Author.
3. I will construct XML from that List of class.

namespace LinqtoXMLSample1
{
    public  class Author
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public int NumberofArticles { get; set; }
    }
}

Creating a static method to construct list of authors

static List<Author> CreateAuthorList()
{   
    List<Author> list = new List<Author>()
    {
        new Author(){Name="Dhananjay Kumar",NumberofArticles= 60},
        new Author (){Name =" Rekha Singh ", NumberofArticles =5},
        new Author () {Name = " Deepti maya patra",NumberofArticles =55},
        new Author (){Name=" Mahesh Chand",NumberofArticles = 700},
        new Author (){Name =" Mike Gold",NumberofArticles = 300},
        new Author(){Name ="Praveen Masood",NumberofArticles = 200},
        new Author (){Name ="Shiv Prasad Koirala",NumberofArticles=100},
        new Author (){Name =" Mamata M ",NumberofArticles =50},
        new Author (){Name=" Puren Mehara",NumberofArticles =50}
    };
    return list;
}

Constructing XML from List

XElement xmlfromlist = new XElement("Authors",
                                     from a in list
                                     select
                                       new XElement("Author",
                                       new XElement("Name", a.Name),
                                       new XElement("NumberOfArticles", a.NumberofArticles)));

In above code , I am simple enumerating through the list and adding Element in XML.

Putting all together

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Collections;
using System.Xml.Linq; 

namespace LinqtoXMLSample1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            List<Author> list = CreateAuthorList();
            XElement xmlfromlist = new XElement("Authors",
                                                 from a in list
                                                 select
                                                     new XElement("Author",
                                                     new XElement("Name", a.Name),
                                                     new XElement("NumberOfArticles", a.NumberofArticles)));
            Console.WriteLine(xmlfromlist);
            Console.ReadKey(true);
        }
  static List<Author> CreateAuthorList()
        {
            List<Author> list = new List<Author>()
                                 {
                                     new Author(){Name="Dhananjay Kumar",NumberofArticles= 60},
                                     new Author (){Name =" Rekha Singh ", NumberofArticles =5},
                                     new Author () {Name = " Deepti maya patra",NumberofArticles =55},
                                     new Author (){Name=" Mahesh Chand",NumberofArticles = 700},
                                     new Author (){Name =" Mike Gold",NumberofArticles = 300},
                                     new Author(){Name ="Praveen Masood",NumberofArticles = 200},
                                     new Author (){Name ="Shiv Prasad Koirala",NumberofArticles=100},
                                     new Author (){Name =" Mamata M ",NumberofArticles =50},
                                     new Author (){Name=" Puren Mehara",NumberofArticles =50}
                                 };
            return list;
        }

        class Author
        {
            public string Name { get; set; }
            public int NumberofArticles { get; set; }
        }
    }
}

Output

Sample 3: Constructing XML Tree from a DB Table.

In this sample, I will create XML tree from content of a table. I do have a table in my Data Base.

Creating LINQ to SQL Class

Right click and add a LINQ to SQL class.

Drag a table by choosing Server Explorer option. I am dragging WCF table here.



Fetching all the records

var res = from r in context.WCFs select r;

Constructing XML from list

XElement xmlfromdb = new XElement("Employee",
                                                from a in res
                                                select
                                              new XElement("EMP",
                                              new XElement("EmpId", a.EmpId),
                                              new XElement("Name", a.Name)));

Putting all together

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Collections;
using System.Xml.Linq; 

namespace LinqtoXMLSample1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            DataClasses1DataContext context = new DataClasses1DataContext();
            var res = from r in context.WCFs select r;
            foreach (WCF r in res)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(r.Name);
            }

            XElement xmlfromdb = new XElement("Employee",
                                                from a in res
                                                select
                                              new XElement("EMP",
                                              new XElement("EmpId", a.EmpId),
                                              new XElement("Name", a.Name)));
            Console.WriteLine(xmlfromdb);
            Console.ReadKey(true);
        }

Output:



Saving XML Tree in a XML file

So far in all above sample, I am just displaying the XML tree on the console. What if? We want to save them on hard disk. To do that, just call Save () method on instance on XElement.

So to save the XML tree in a XML file in Sample 3, just we need to call Save method as below. XML Tree will get saved in a.xml at location E local drive.

xmlfromdb.Save(@"e:\\a.xml");
Console.WriteLine("File Saved");

a.xml will contain something like below,



Conclusion:

In this article, I have talked about various way of creating XML tree using LINQ. Please find the attached code for better understanding. Thanks for reading.

Happy Coding