Generic code to read XML document without knowing Root Node and Parent Node using LINQ

Recently i came across a situation where i was supposed to write code for reading a XML file where the structure of the document was fixed but following information was changing.

1) RootNode text,
2) ParentNode text
3) Number of Child nodes inside the parent node

So in Today's example we will see a way to write customized or generic code to read XML document where the Root Node, Parent Node and number of Child nodes can vary using LINQ.

Customers.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Customers>

  <Customer>

    <name>Aryan Mehta</name>

    <city>Bangalore</city>

    <country>India</country>

  </Customer>

  <Customer>

    <name>Steve Martin</name>

    <city>Sydney</city>

    <country>Australia</country>

  </Customer>

</Customers>

For this example i am using "Customer.xml" as the sample xml file.

//Loading the customers xml into the XDocument object

XDocument oXDocument = XDocument.Load(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "Customers.xml");

//Retrieving the Root Node of the xml document dynamically

string RootNodeName = oXDocument.Root.Name.ToString();

//retrieving all the distinct elements inside a Root Node           

var ElementNodes = oXDocument.Root.DescendantNodes().OfType<XElement>().Select(x => x.Name).Distinct();

//ElementNodes.First will give the first node inside Root Node

//which is nothing but the Parent Node

var CustomerInfo = from CustomerInfoNode in oXDocument.Element(RootNodeName).Elements(ElementNodes.First())

                   select CustomerInfoNode;

//Looping through all the Customers elements in the CustomerInfo Element

foreach (XElement oXElement in CustomerInfo)

{

  //For separating the customer information

  Console.WriteLine("----Customer Information----");

 //Looping through Customer details of a particular Customer

 foreach (XElement oXElementData in oXElement.Elements())

 {

   //displaying the customer details in the console window

   Console.WriteLine(oXElementData.Name.ToString() + "=" + 

                     oXElementData.Value.ToString());

 }

 Console.WriteLine("");

}

Console.ReadLine();

When i use the same code for following "Employees.xml" which is with different Root Node and Parent Node.

Employees.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Employees>

  <Employee>

    <name>Aryan Mehta</name>

    <city>Bangalore</city>

  </ Employee >

  < Employee >

    <name>Steve Martin</name>

    <city>Sydney</city>

  </ Employee >

</ Employees >

So the code of today's example can be used with different XML document having dynamic Root Node and Parent Node. But the only restriction is that the structure of the XML node should be same.

I hope this example has served the purpose of giving an idea on how to read a XML document in a generic way using LINQ.

Happy coding....