Renaming xmlnodes using c# dynamically

Question

I am using the below code to rename the xmlnode name dynamically. It's looping though the xml just fine, but it does not change the node name. Please help me to do this.

Sample XML doucment

- <NewDataSet>
- <Table5>
  <FLD_ID>62</FLD_ID> 
  <FLD_DATE>2013-03-12</FLD_DATE> 
  <FLD_MOD_DATE>2013-04-05</FLD_MOD_DATE> 
  <FLD_DESC>New Creation</FLD_DESC> 
  </Table5>
- </NewDataSet>

Needed XML DOCUMENT

- <rows>
- <row>
  <cell>62</cell> 
  <cell>2013-03-12</cell> 
  <cell>2013-04-05</cell> 
  <cell>New Creation</cell> 
  </row>
- </rows>

My code is here

XmlNode PackageListNode = hst_doc.SelectSingleNode("NewDataSet");
                XmlNodeList PackageNodeList = PackageListNode.SelectNodes("Table5");

                foreach (XmlNode node in PackageNodeList)
                {
                    node.Name.Replace("Table5", "row");

                    foreach (XmlNode ls in node)
                    {
                        ls.Name.Replace(ls.Name, "cell");

                    }
        }

Solution 1

As you can't replace element names in an XmlDocument... ...a replacement approach for your specific situation:

string srcXML = "<NewDataSet><Table5><FLD_ID>62</FLD_ID><FLD_DATE>2013-03-12</FLD_DATE><FLD_MOD_DATE>2013-04-05</FLD_MOD_DATE><FLD_DESC>New Creation</FLD_DESC></Table5></NewDataSet>";
var doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(srcXML);

XmlNode oldRoot = doc.SelectSingleNode("NewDataSet");
XmlNode newRoot = doc.CreateElement("rows");
doc.ReplaceChild(newRoot, oldRoot);

foreach (XmlNode childNode in oldRoot.ChildNodes)
{
    newRoot.AppendChild(childNode.CloneNode(true));
}

XmlNodeList PackageNodeList = newRoot.SelectNodes("Table5");

foreach (XmlNode node in PackageNodeList)
{
    var newNode = doc.CreateElement("row");
    newRoot.ReplaceChild(newNode, node);

    foreach (XmlNode childNode in node.ChildNodes)
    {
        var clonedChildNode = childNode.CloneNode(true);
        newNode.AppendChild(clonedChildNode);

        var newChildNode = doc.CreateElement("cell");
        newNode.ReplaceChild(newChildNode, clonedChildNode);

        foreach (XmlNode childChildNode in clonedChildNode.ChildNodes)
        {
            newChildNode.AppendChild(childChildNode.CloneNode(true));
        }                    
    }
}

Debug.Print(doc.OuterXml);

Solution 2

Embrace LINQ, embrace it!

// load the document from a file
var doc = XDocument.Load(xmlPath);
var root = doc.Root;

// replace the root element with a new element
root.ReplaceWith(

    // create a new element with
    // the name "rows" with new children
    new XElement("rows",

        // replace all child elements of
        // the root with new elements
        root.Elements().Select(table =>

            // replace the current element with a new element
            // with the name "row" with the new children
            new XElement("row",

                // replace all child elements of the
                // current element with new elements
                table.Elements().Select(field =>

                    // replace the current element with a new element
                    // with the name "cell" with the same value
                    new XElement("cell",
                        (string)field
                    )
                )
            )
        )
    )
);

// save the document back to the file
doc.Save(xmlPath);

Comments

[user2176150]

can i change the root name NewDataSet to rows.

[Felix Bayer]

Edited my answer. Anyway.. as i rethought the question i think, maybe - depending on the "real world usage" of this solution - the more elegant way of transforming your xml input would be using XSL Transformation as discussed here: link

[Felix Bayer]

If you are not bound to the XmlDocument and can make use of the .NET Framwork 3.5+ XDocument it's really way more pretty and usable as seen in the answer of Jeff Mercado.