C# WPF Display large xml file of unknown format

Question

I'm trying to parse an XML file of size around 400KB. But I cannot overcome the stack overflow exception. First I create XmlReader and pass it to the XML file. Then I create XElement from the XmlReader.

This is my code:

private ViewContent ParseToView(XElement xElement)
{
    ViewContent viewContent = new ViewContent();
    viewContent.elementName = xElement.Name.LocalName;
        foreach (XAttribute item in xElement.Attributes())
        {
            viewContent.attributes.Add(new ElementAttribute(item.Name.ToString(), item.Value));
        }
        foreach (XElement item in xElement.Elements())
        {
            viewContent.viewContents.Add(ParseToView(xElement));
        }
        return new ViewContent();
    }

}

public class ViewContent
{
    public string elementName;
    public List<ElementAttribute> attributes = new List<ElementAttribute>();
    public List<ViewContent> viewContents = new List<ViewContent>();
} 

public class ElementAttribute
{
    public ElementAttribute(string attributeName, string attributeValue)
    {
        this.attributeName = attributeName;
        this.attributeValue = attributeValue;
    }

    public string attributeName;
    public string attributeValue;
}

Answer 1

In method ParseToView you are calling same method recursively but you're calling it with same parameter - viewContent.viewContents.Add(ParseToView(xElement)); - this causes stackoverflow:

viewContent.viewContents.Add(ParseToView(xElement));

should have probably been:

viewContent.viewContents.Add(ParseToView(item));

in method:

private ViewContent ParseToView(XElement xElement)
{
    ViewContent viewContent = new ViewContent();
    viewContent.elementName = xElement.Name.LocalName;
        foreach (XAttribute item in xElement.Attributes())
        {
            viewContent.attributes.Add(new ElementAttribute(item.Name.ToString(), item.Value));
        }
        foreach (XElement item in xElement.Elements())
        {
            viewContent.viewContents.Add(ParseToView(xElement)); // <-Faulty line here
        }
        return new ViewContent();
    }

}