Compare two xml and print the difference using LINQ

Question

I am comparing two xml and I have to print the difference. How can I achieve this using LINQ. I know I can use XML diff patch by Microsoft but I prefer to use LINQ . If you have any other idea I will implement that

//First Xml

<Books>
 <book>  
  <id="20504" image="C01" name="C# in Depth">
 </book>  
 <book> 
  <id="20505" image="C02" name="ASP.NET">
 </book> 
 <book> 
  <id="20506" image="C03" name="LINQ in Action ">
 </book> 
 <book> 
  <id="20507" image="C04" name="Architecting Applications">
 </book> 
</Books>

//Second Xml

<Books>
  <book> 
    <id="20504" image="C011" name="C# in Depth">
  </book>
  <book> 
    <id="20505" image="C02" name="ASP.NET 2.0">
  </book>
  <book> 
    <id="20506" image="C03" name="LINQ in Action ">
  </book>
  <book> 
    <id="20508" image="C04" name="Architecting Applications">
  </book>
</Books>

I want to compare this two xml and print result like this.

Issued       Issue Type             IssueInFirst    IssueInSecond

1            image is different      C01              C011
2            name  is different      ASP.NET          ASP.NET 2.0
3            id  is different        20507            20508

Answer 1

Here is the solution:

//sanitised xmls:
string s1 = @"<Books>
                 <book id='20504' image='C01' name='C# in Depth'/>
                 <book id='20505' image='C02' name='ASP.NET'/>
                 <book id='20506' image='C03' name='LINQ in Action '/>
                 <book id='20507' image='C04' name='Architecting Applications'/>
                </Books>";
string s2 = @"<Books>
                  <book id='20504' image='C011' name='C# in Depth'/>
                  <book id='20505' image='C02' name='ASP.NET 2.0'/>
                  <book id='20506' image='C03' name='LINQ in Action '/>
                  <book id='20508' image='C04' name='Architecting Applications'/>
                </Books>";

XDocument xml1 = XDocument.Parse(s1);
XDocument xml2 = XDocument.Parse(s2);

//get cartesian product (i think)
var result1 =   from xmlBooks1 in xml1.Descendants("book")
                from xmlBooks2 in xml2.Descendants("book")
                select new { 
                            book1 = new {
                                        id=xmlBooks1.Attribute("id").Value,
                                        image=xmlBooks1.Attribute("image").Value,
                                        name=xmlBooks1.Attribute("name").Value
                                      }, 
                            book2 = new {
                                        id=xmlBooks2.Attribute("id").Value,
                                        image=xmlBooks2.Attribute("image").Value,
                                        name=xmlBooks2.Attribute("name").Value
                                      } 
                             };

//get every record that has at least one attribute the same, but not all
var result2 = from i in result1
                 where (i.book1.id == i.book2.id 
                        || i.book1.image == i.book2.image 
                        || i.book1.name == i.book2.name) &&
                        !(i.book1.id == i.book2.id 
                        && i.book1.image == i.book2.image 
                        && i.book1.name == i.book2.name) 
                 select i;



foreach (var aa in result2)
{
    //you do the output :D
}

Both linq statements probably could be merged, but I leave that as an exercise for you.