Children of XElement

Question

How do I get just the children of an XElement?

I am currently using the XElement.Descendants() function, which returns all levels of XElements, rather than just the child nodes.

What I would really like is an IEnumerable of just the children.

Solution 1

The immediate child elements of one XElement are accessible by calling the Element() or Elements() functions. Use the overloads with a name to access specific elements, or without to access all child elements.

There are also similar methods like Attribute() and Attributes() that you might find useful.

Solution 2

XElement.Nodes() should get you what you want.

If you just want the XElement child nodes then you might need to restrict it (depending on your XML) with:

XElement.Nodes().OfType<XElement>()

Solution 3

XElement.Nodes

Comments

[rtpHarry]

This seems to have solved the OPs question but there is no parameterless overload for Element() so this doesn't help me to get the first child when I know that its XName can vary.

[Bevan]

If you just want the first child, reguardless of name, try using Elements().FirstOrDefault().

[Tacroy]

Why couldn't they have just called it "XElement.Children"? Way more discoverable.

[Bevan]

@Tacroy Each XElement has two sets of children, either of which may be empty. One is the ordered set of child elements, the other is a set of child attributes - whichever one you think should be found in Children, others would disagree. Using Elements and Attributes follows the nomenclature of the Xml standard.

[Zev Spitz]

@Bevan I think the better answer would be that there may also be a set of nodes, each of which might not be an element. Attributes are not actually children of the element.