Is it just me? I find LINQ to XML to be sort of cumbersome, compared to XPath

Question

I am a C# programmer, so I don't get to take advantage of the cool XML syntax in VB.

Dim itemList1 = From item In rss.<rss>.<channel>.<item> _
                Where item.<description>.Value.Contains("LINQ") Or _
                      item.<title>.Value.Contains("LINQ")

Using C#, I find XPath to be easier to think about, easier to code, easier to understand, than performing a multi-nested select using LINQ to XML. Look at this syntax, it looks like Greek swearing:

var waypoints = from waypoint in gpxDoc.Descendants(gpx + "wpt") 
          select new 
          { 
            Latitude = waypoint.Attribute("lat").Value, 
            Longitude = waypoint.Attribute("lon").Value, 
            Elevation = waypoint.Element(gpx + "ele") != null ? 
                waypoint.Element(gpx + "ele").Value : null, 
            Name = waypoint.Element(gpx + "name") != null ? 
                waypoint.Element(gpx + "name").Value : null, 
            Dt = waypoint.Element(gpx + "cmt") != null ? 
                waypoint.Element(gpx + "cmt").Value : null 
          }; 

All the casting, the heavy syntax, the possibility for NullPointerExceptions. None of this happens with XPath.

I like LINQ in general, and I use it on object collections and databases, but my first go-round with querying XML led me right back to XPath.

Is it just me?

Am I missing something?

---

EDIT: someone voted to close this as "not a real question". But it is a real question, stated clearly. The question is: Am I misunderstanding something with LINQ to XML?

Answer 1

Yes, the example you've given is unweildy.

But with LINQ comes the flexibility to refactor away the unweildiness.

Here's an example of how I would improve it. (This is done without any testing at all, and I don't even know the real class names, but it should convey the idea)

static class LinqXmlExtension
{
    public static NodeThingy ElementOrNull(this XmlElement ele, string searchString)
    {
         return (ele.Element(searchString) != null ? ele.Element(searchString).Value : null);
    }
}

//
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

var waypoints = from waypoint in gpxDoc.Descendants(gpx + "wpt")           
                select new           
                {             
                      Latitude  = waypoint.Attribute("lat").Value,             
                      Longitude = waypoint.Attribute("lon").Value,
                      Elevation = waypoint.ElementOrNull(gpx + "ele"),
                      Name      = waypoint.ElementOrNull(gpx + "name"),
                      Dt        = waypoint.ElementOrNull(gpx + "cmt")           
                 };