How to Convert XElement to XComment (C#)

Question

My first question here...

I'm parsing xml file (using c# as Xdocument) and trying to disable some xElement objects. the standard way (where I work) is to make them appear as xComment.

I couldn't find any way to do this besides parsing it as a text file.

Result should look like this:

<EnabledElement>ABC</EnabledElement>
<!-- DisabledElement></DisabledElement-->

Answer 1

Well it's not quite as you were asking for, but this does replace an element with a commented version:

using System;
using System.Xml.Linq; 

public class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var doc = new XDocument(
            new XElement("root",
                new XElement("value1", "This is a value"),
                new XElement("value2", "This is another value")));

        Console.WriteLine(doc);

        XElement value2 = doc.Root.Element("value2");
        value2.ReplaceWith(new XComment(value2.ToString()));
        Console.WriteLine(doc);
    }
}

Output:

<root>
  <value1>This is a value</value1>
  <value2>This is another value</value2>
</root>

<root>
  <value1>This is a value</value1>
  <!--<value2>This is another value</value2>-->
</root>

If you really want the comment opening and closing < and > to replace the ones from the element, you can use:

value2.ReplaceWith(new XComment(value2.ToString().Trim('<', '>')));

... but I personally wouldn't.