How to compare two XmlNodes of XmlDocument in C#?

Question

This is a sample xml. If a new font is to be added in the sense, all the existing fonts to be compare with the new font before adding to the preference. How do I check the node(font) whether already exists or not in case of XmlDocument?

<preferences>
  <font role="console">
    <size>9</size>
    <fname>Courier</fname>
  </font>
  <font role="default">
    <fname>Times New Roman</fname>
    <size>14</size>
  </font>
  <font role="titles">
    <size>10</size>
    <fname>Helvetica</fname>
  </font>
</preferences>

Answer 1

One approach would be to create a couple of classes to represent the XML document and implement the IEquatable<T> Interface.

https://dotnetfiddle.net/QZFwDy

Classes for XML

[XmlRoot(ElementName = "font")]
public class Font : IEquatable<Font>
{
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "size")]
    public string Size { get; set; }
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "fname")]
    public string Fname { get; set; }
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "role")]
    public string Role { get; set; }

    public bool Equals(Font font)
    {
        if (font == null) return false;

        return (Size == font.Size) && (Fname == font.Fname) && (Role == font.Role);
    }
}

[XmlRoot(ElementName = "preferences")]
public class Preferences
{
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "font")]
    public List<Font> Font { get; set; }
}

Then use the Preferences class to deserialize the XML. Once the document is deserialized, leverage the List<T>.Contains(T item) method to see if the font node exists. The .Contains method will call the implementation of Equals in the Font class.

Code to Demonstrate

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Preferences preferences = null;
    var xmlString = Data.XML;

    using (var stream = new StringReader(xmlString))
    {
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Preferences));
        preferences = (Preferences)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
    }

    var node0 = new Font()
    {
        Fname = "New One",
        Role = "console",
        Size = "12"
    };

    var node1 = new Font()
    {
        Fname = "Helvetica",
        Role = "titles",
        Size = "10"
    };

    if (preferences.Font.Contains(node0))
    {
        // Not expecting to enter here
        Console.WriteLine($"'{nameof(node0)}' is already present");
    }

    if (preferences.Font.Contains(node1))
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"'{nameof(node1)}' is already present");
    }
}