put xml into Array

Question

I have an xml file, and I need to be able to sort it in either a list or an array

The XML:

<Restaurant>
   <name>test</name>
   <location>test</location>
</Restaurant>
<Restaurant>
   <name>test2</name>
   <location>test2</location>
</Restaurant>

All the Restaurants will have the same number of fields and the same names for the fields, but the number of <Restaurant></Restaurant> in a given xml file is unknown.

In other words, I need an array or list and be able to do this:

String name = restaurantArray[0].name;
String location = restaurantArray[0].location;

While I don't need that syntax obviously, this is the functionality I'm trying to accomplish.

Answer 1

If you are trying to get names of restaurants and Restaurant elements are direct child of root element:

string[] names = xdoc.Root.Elements("Restaurant")
                     .Select(r => (string)r.Element("name"))
                     .ToArray();

EDIT: If you are trying to parse whole restaurant objects:

var restaurants = from r in xdoc.Root.Elements("Restaurant")
                  select new {
                     Name = (string)r.Element("name"),
                     Location = (string)r.Element("location")
                  };

Usage:

foreach(var restaurant in restaurants)
{
    // use restaurant.Name or restaurant.Location
}

You can create instance of some Restaurant class instead of anonymous object here. Also you can put restaurants to array by simple restaurants.ToArray() call.

Answer 2

The answer by Sergey is very clear but if you want to load it from the saved file I think it will be helpful for you. Actually for loading a XML files to the array I used this method, But my array was double Jagged array. The code that I used is below I modified based on your resturant:

  private static resturant[][] LoadXML(string filePath)
    {

        //Open the XML file
        System.IO.FileStream fs = new System.IO.FileStream(filePath, System.IO.FileMode.Open);

        // First create a xml Serializer object

        System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer xmlSer = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(resturant[][]));



       resturant[][] resturant = (resturant[][])xmlSer.Deserialize(fs);

        // Close the file stream

        fs.Close();


        return resturant ;

    }

By this function you can read all your data as below :

double [][] res = LoadXML(@"YOUR FILE PATH");

As you know the first and second element of each resturant is name and location I think accessing to them is now easy for you.