Choosing sub XML as a string

Question

I have the following XML:

<Run id="1"> <Servers> <Server id="1" fqdn="ENG-HSINGH"> <Roles> <Role id="1" rootFolder="C:\DeleteMe"/> </Roles> </Server> </Servers> <Roles> <Role id="1"> <ValidationInformation> <ValidationObject> <FileSystem> <Directory path="\A\HTML"> <File id="1" path="\A\HTML\1.HTM"/> <File id="2" path="\A\HTML\2.ASP" /> </Directory> <Directory path="\B\EntireFolder"> <File id="8" path="\B\EntireFolder\1.txt"/> <File id="9" path="\B\EntireFolder\2.txt"/> <File id="10" path="\B\EntireFolder\3.txt"/> <File id="11" path="\B\EntireFolder\4.txt"/> <File id="12" path="\EHR\EntireFolder\5.txt"/> </Directory> <Files> <File id="4" path="\C\6.txt"/> </Files> </FileSystem> </ValidationObject> </ValidationInformation> </Role> <Role id="2"> <ValidationInformation> <ValidationObject> <FileSystem> <Directory path="\D\HTML"> <File id="13" path="\D\HTML\1.HTM"/> </Directory> <Directory path="\E"> <File id="14" path="\E\1.txt"/> </Directory> <Files> <File id="15" path="\F\1.txt"/> </Files> </FileSystem> </ValidationObject> </ValidationInformation> </Role> </Roles> </Run> 

I want to read this XML in a dictionary representing roles, and the corresponding Sub XML ValidationInformation file as string.eg

 1, "<ValidationObject><FileSystem><Directory path='\A\HTML'><File id='1' path='\A\HTML\1.HTM'/><File id='2' path='\A\HTML\2.ASP' /></Directory><Directory path='\B\EntireFolder'><File id='8' path='\B\EntireFolder\1.txt'/><File id='9' path='\B\EntireFolder\2.txt'/><File id='10' path='\B\EntireFolder\3.txt'/><File id='11' path='\B\EntireFolder\4.txt'/><File id='12' path='\EHR\EntireFolder\5.txt'/></Directory><Files><File id='4' path='\C\6.txt'/></Files></FileSystem></ValidationObject>" 2, "<ValidationObject><FileSystem><Directory path='\D\HTML'><File id='13' path='\D\HTML\1.HTM'/></Directory><Directory path='\E'><File id='14' path='\E\1.txt'/></Directory><Files><File id='15' path='\F\1.txt'/></Files></FileSystem></ValidationObject>" 

I know that I can read the XML nodes in the ValidationInformation node for each role and stick to the resulting XML, but this does not seem like a good way to do this.

Is there a cleaner way to do this?

Thanks, N

Answer 1

This works for me:

 Dictionary<int, string> myDictionary = new Dictionary<int, string>(); XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument(); xml.LoadXml(<myInputXMLAsString>); XmlNodeList xnList = xml.SelectNodes("/Run/Roles"); foreach (XmlNode xn in xnList) { int roleId = int.Parse(xn["Role"].Attributes["id"].Value); XmlDocument subXmlDocument = new XmlDocument(); subXmlDocument.LoadXml(xn.InnerXml); XmlNodeList subXn = subXmlDocument.SelectNodes("/Role/ValidationInformation"); string validationInfo = subXn[0].InnerXml; roleIdToValidationInformationDictionary.Add(roleId, validationInfo); }