Querying deserialized objects

Question

Having this XML that contain car collection:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<CarCollection>
    <Cars>
        <Car>
            <StockNumber>1020</StockNumber>
            <Make>Nissan</Make>
            <Model>Sentra</Model>
        </Car>
        <Car>
            <StockNumber>1010</StockNumber>
            <Make>Toyota</Make>
            <Model>Corolla</Model>
        </Car>
        <Car>
            <StockNumber>1111</StockNumber>
            <Make>Honda</Make>
            <Model>Accord</Model>
        </Car>
        <Car>
            <StockNumber>2000</StockNumber>
            <Make>Maybach</Make>
            <Model>S 600</Model>
        </Car>
        <Car>
            <StockNumber>2001</StockNumber>
            <Make>Ferrari</Make>
            <Model>F355 Spider</Model>
        </Car>
    </Cars>
</CarCollection>

and its deserialized object classes, that was generated by the xsd.exe:

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <auto-generated>
//     Dieser Code wurde von einem Tool generiert.
//     Laufzeitversion:4.0.30319.42000
//
//     Änderungen an dieser Datei können falsches Verhalten verursachen und gehen verloren, wenn
//     der Code erneut generiert wird.
// </auto-generated>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

using System.Xml.Serialization;

// 
// Dieser Quellcode wurde automatisch generiert von xsd, Version=4.6.1055.0.
// 


/// <remarks/>
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("xsd", "4.6.1055.0")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType=true)]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(Namespace="", IsNullable=false)]
public partial class CarCollection : object, System.ComponentModel.INotifyPropertyChanged {

    private CarCollectionCars[] itemsField;

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("Cars", Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public CarCollectionCars[] Items {
        get {
            return this.itemsField;
        }
        set {
            this.itemsField = value;
            this.RaisePropertyChanged("Items");
        }
    }

    public event System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    protected void RaisePropertyChanged(string propertyName) {
        System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventHandler propertyChanged = this.PropertyChanged;
        if ((propertyChanged != null)) {
            propertyChanged(this, new System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
        }
    }
}

/// <remarks/>
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("xsd", "4.6.1055.0")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType=true)]
public partial class CarCollectionCars : object, System.ComponentModel.INotifyPropertyChanged {

    private CarCollectionCarsCar[] carField;

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("Car", Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public CarCollectionCarsCar[] Car {
        get {
            return this.carField;
        }
        set {
            this.carField = value;
            this.RaisePropertyChanged("Car");
        }
    }

    public event System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    protected void RaisePropertyChanged(string propertyName) {
        System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventHandler propertyChanged = this.PropertyChanged;
        if ((propertyChanged != null)) {
            propertyChanged(this, new System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
        }
    }
}

/// <remarks/>
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("xsd", "4.6.1055.0")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType=true)]
public partial class CarCollectionCarsCar : object, System.ComponentModel.INotifyPropertyChanged {

    private string stockNumberField;

    private string makeField;

    private string modelField;

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string StockNumber {
        get {
            return this.stockNumberField;
        }
        set {
            this.stockNumberField = value;
            this.RaisePropertyChanged("StockNumber");
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string Make {
        get {
            return this.makeField;
        }
        set {
            this.makeField = value;
            this.RaisePropertyChanged("Make");
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string Model {
        get {
            return this.modelField;
        }
        set {
            this.modelField = value;
            this.RaisePropertyChanged("Model");
        }
    }

    public event System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    protected void RaisePropertyChanged(string propertyName) {
        System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventHandler propertyChanged = this.PropertyChanged;
        if ((propertyChanged != null)) {
            propertyChanged(this, new System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
        }
    }
}

I want to query the StockNumber, Make and the Model of the Car class. Therefore, I've started with this code:

XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(CarCollection));
CarCollection cars;
using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(file))
{
    cars = (CarCollection)ser.Deserialize(reader);
    foreach (var item in cars.Items)
    {
        foreach (var carCollection in item.Car)
        {
            carPool.Add(new CarPool()
            {
                Make = carCollection.Make,
                Model = carCollection.Model,
                StockNumber = carCollection.StockNumber
            });
        }
    }
}

However, I don't like this nested for loops. Does anyone know how to query this more effective by using LINQ?

Answer 1

Linq and SelectMany() should resolve the nested loops:

// not tested or compiled
using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(file))
{
    var cars = (CarCollection)ser.Deserialize(reader);

    carPool.AddRange(
       cars.Items.SelectMany(it => it.Car).Select(c => 
            new CarPool()
            {
                Make = c.Make,
                Model = c.Model,
                StockNumber = c.StockNumber
            }) );
}