C# Read XML inside tag (Inner?)

Question

Ok, I have a small issue reading one of my company's notorious malformed xml files.

Trying to get 5 values from it and save them individually as variables.

Here is an example of the tricky XML.
(I may not be using the right terms, but I couldn't find anything on reading values of this type)

<ONE>
    <TWO>
      <THREE>
      </THREE>
    </TWO>
  <DATA internalid="1" externalid="2" lastname="lname" firstname="name" date="20.03.2003"/>
</ONE>

So, the data I need is internalid, externalid, lastname, firstname, and date.

What I've been working with so far, and unable to make anything happen.

string xml = (@"C:\1.xml");
var xmlElement = XElement.Load(xml);
var xmlList = (from message in xmlElement.Elements("DATA")
               select new
               {
                   internalid = message.Attribute("internalid").Value,
                   externalid = message.Attribute("externalid").Value,
                   lastname = message.Attribute("lastname").Value,
                   firstname = message.Attribute("firstname").Value,
                   date = message.Attribute("date").Value
               }).ToString();

And I'm unable to get it to fly. Not that I'm getting any errors, but when I out this string to a richtextbox or just textbox I get this....

System.Linq.Enumerable+WhereSelectEnumerableIterator2[System.Xml.Linq.XElement,<>f__AnonymousType05[System.String,System.String,System.String,System.String,System.String]]

Also, so I can better research the problem, what is it called when data is INSIDE the tag like that?

Thanks guys!

Answer 1

As @Jon Skeet mentioned you are calling ToString() on a sequence. The following code may get your closer to your desired solution.

var xmlList = (from message in xmlElement.Elements("DATA")
                select new
                {
                    internalid = message.Attribute("internalid").Value,
                    externalid = message.Attribute("externalid").Value,
                    lastname = message.Attribute("lastname").Value,
                    firstname = message.Attribute("firstname").Value,
                    date = message.Attribute("date").Value
                });

StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var item in xmlList)
{
    builder.Append(item);
}
string test = builder.ToString();

As for your question regarding "data is INSIDE the tag like that". These are examples of XML Attributes.

Here's a good resource to start learning linq Introduction to LINQ Queries (C#).