.NET Essentials: LINQ for XML

Course details

The first explanation you typically hear about Microsoft LINQ is that it provides an in-language query tool to manipulate the contents of arrays and lists. Explore LINQ further and you’ll find it works with other popular data sources like XML files. In this course, instructor Walt Ritscher shows you how LINQ to XML uses LINQ extension methods to read, create, search, and manipulate XML in a simplified way. Walt walks you through LINQPad, the lightweight, powerful code editor and code runner that is used in this course, then explains how to load XML into different LINQ classes. He covers how you can get different elements and attributes from XML and some of the ways you can work with elements and attributes, after getting them. Walt describes a variety of query operators that you can use. He concludes with a discussion on how you can create and edit XML structure with LINQ.

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Query and transform your XML data with LINQ
02 - What you should know
03 - How to access the sample code on GitHub
04 - Why this course uses LINQPad
05 - Install LINQPad

1. Load XML into LINQ Classes

06 - Understand LINQ for XML
07 - The XML data files for this course
08 - Load data from an XML file
09 - Quick look at the XElement class
10 - Parse XML in an XML string
11 - Save the XML document

2. Work with Elements and Attributes

12 - Get an element from XML
13 - Get an attribute from XML
14 - Get nodes when using schema namespace
15 - Get single or multiple elements
16 - Get child element
17 - Get child elements
18 - Use Descendants() to recurse child elements
19 - Get attributes
20 - Read element and attribute values
21 - Change element and attribute values
22 - Use SetElementValue to add, remove, and modify child elements
23 - Use SetValue to set with non-string data

3. Query Operators

24 - Use Query syntax to work with elements
25 - Attribute query
26 - Select data into a new anonymous type
27 - Where clause on attribute value
28 - Where clause with compare
29 - Aggregate queries
30 - Choose output order with OrderBy
31 - Query for empty elements and blank values
32 - Group by
33 - Challenge - Create custom string output
34 - Solution - Create custom string output
35 - Challenge - Filter results to show elements with no content
36 - Solution - Filter results to show elements with no content
37 - Challenge - Filter results to show invalid values
38 - Solution - Filter results to show invalid values

4. Create and Edit XML Structure

39 - Use the DumpFormatted extension method
40 - XDocument compared to XElement
41 - Create XML structure
42 - Rename elements and attributes
43 - Replace elements and attributes
44 - Remove element
45 - Add parent element and move elements
46 - Challenge - Move attributes and elements
47 - Solution - Move attributes and elements

Conclusion

48 - Next steps