How to read XML attributes in C#?

Question

I have several XML files that I wish to read attributes from. My main objective is to apply syntax highlighting to rich text box.

For example in one of my XML docs I have: <Keyword name="using">[..] All the files have the same element: Keyword.

So, how can I get the value for the attribute name and put them in a collection of strings for each XML file.

I am using Visual C# 2008.

Answer 1

The other answers will do the job - but the syntax highlighting thingy and the several xml files you say you have makes me thinks you need something faster, why not use a lean and mean XmlReader?

private string[] getNames(string fileName)
{

  XmlReader xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(fileName);
  List<string> names = new List<string>(); 

  while (xmlReader.Read())
  {
   //keep reading until we see your element
   if (xmlReader.Name.Equals("Keyword") && (xmlReader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element))
   {
     // get attribute from the Xml element here
     string name = xmlReader.GetAttribute("name");
     // --> now **add to collection** - or whatever
     names.Add(name);
   }
  }

  return names.ToArray();
}

Another good option would be the XPathNavigator class - which is faster than XmlDoc and you can use XPath.

Also I would suggest to go with this approach only IFF after you try with the straightforward options you're not happy with performance.

Answer 2

You could use XPath to get all the elements, then a LINQ query to get the values on all the name atttributes you find:

 XDocument doc = yourDocument;
 var nodes = from element in doc.XPathSelectElements("//Keyword")
             let att = element.Attribute("name")
             where att != null
             select att.Value;
 string[] names = nodes.ToArray();

The //Keyword XPath expression means, "all elements in the document, named "Keyword".

Edit: Just saw that you only want elements named Keyword. Updated the code sample.