Most elegant way to query XML string using XPath

Question

I'm wondering what the most elegant way is in C# to query a STRING that is valid xml using XPath?

Currently, I am doing this (using LINQ):

var el = XElement.Parse(xmlString);
var h2 = el.XPathSelectElement("//h2");

Answer 1

Simple example using Linq to XML :

XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(someStringContainingXml);
var cats = from node in doc.Descendants("Animal")
           where node.Attribute("Species").Value == "Cat"
           select node.Attribute("Name").Value;

Much clearer than XPath IMHO...

Answer 2

Just for the record, I did not want to go with Linq2XML but XPath and found this way:

var xPathDoc = new XPathDocument(new StringReader("your XML string goes here"));