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c#xmlxmldocumentselectnodes

Retrieving attributes from XML

Why does running this code...

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();

string xml = @"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8"" ?>
                   <BaaBaa>
                        <BlackSheep HaveYouAny=""Wool"" />  
                   </BaaBaa>";

doc.LoadXml(xml);

XmlNodeList nodes = doc.SelectNodes("//BaaBaa");

foreach (XmlElement element in nodes)
{
    Console.WriteLine(element.InnerXml);

    XmlAttributeCollection attributes = element.Attributes;
    Console.WriteLine(attributes.Count);
}

Produce the following output in the command prompt?

<BlackSheep HaveYouAny="Wool" />
0

That is, shouldn't attributes.Count return 1?

Solution

  • When you call SelectNodes with "//BaaBaa" it returns all elements of "BaaBaa".

    As you can see from your own document, BaaBaa has no attributes, it's the "BlackSheep" element that has the single attribute "HaveYouAny".

    If you want to get the attribute count of child elements, you have to navigate to that from the node you are on when iterating through the nodes.