TABLE OF CONTENTS |
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LINQ to XML |
This section of the LINQ Learning Guide focuses on the implementation called LINQ to XML, which is specifically targeted to XML data. Here we provide an introduction to LINQ to XML and provide some resources that walk programmers through some specific tasks. From here, check out the next section of the LINQ Learning Guide, which focuses on the LINQ to SQL flavor.
LINQ to XML five-minute
overview (Hooked on LINQ)
Here you'll see how to load an XML file and then write a query over it.
LINQ to XML overview
(Microsoft)
This page provides the customary introduction to LINQ to XML. "It is like the Document Object Model
(DOM) in that it brings the XML document into memory," Microsoft states, adding that it also
differs from DOM because "it provides a new object model that is lighter weight and easier to work
with, and that takes advantage of language improvements" in C# and Visual Basic.
LINQ to XML programming
guide (Microsoft)
Here you'll find a series of articles on various tasks associated with LINQ to XML -- XML
namespaces, XML trees and "mitigating security exposure." (Code is in C#.)
.NET Language-Integrated Query
for XML data (Microsoft)
This lengthy tutorial covers the ins and outs of XML programming, LINQ to XML queries and using XML
with other data models such as SQL Server.
System.Xml.Linq
demystified (Daniel Moth)
System.Xml.Linq is the .NET Framework 3.5 assembly for working with LINQ to XAML. As this blogger
indicates, "[E]ffectively this is a standalone new XML API. You can use it without ever going
anywhere near the LINQ syntax." A diagram helps illustrate the namespaces and types within the
assembly.
Podcast: Scott Hanselman and Carl
Franklin talk LINQ to XML (Hanselminutes)
Here you'll hear some thoughts on XDocuments, XElements classes that link System.Xml and
System.Xml.Linq.
LINQ to XML samples
(MSDN)
These downloadable code samples come in C# and in Visual Basic.
*** The resources that follow address some specific tasks that a C# or Visual Basic programmer may want to accomplish using LINQ to XML.
Using
LINQ to XML to build a custom RSS feed reader (Scott Guthrie)
The title of this article pretty much says it all -- Guthrie introduces readers to LINQ to XML,
offers a refresher course on anonymous types and demonstrates how to use LINQ to XML to take the
individual items within an RSS feed, treat them as .NET objects and bind them to, say, an ASP.NET
GridView.
Quickly
import, export Excel data with LINQ to XML (Beth Massi)
This article demonstrates how to get an Excel 2003 file into XML format and then import it using
LINQ to XML. (The author chose Excel 2003 to prove that it'll work with the older version as well
as with Excel 2007.)
LINQ
to XSD: Typed XML programming with LINQ (Fabrice Marguerie)
LINQ to XSD allows typed XML programming atop LINQ to XML. Running it requires an XML Schema, which
"generate[s] an object model that can then be used to manipulate XML data through LINQ, while
enforcing types and the various validation constraints specified in the XML schema."
Parsing WordML using
LINQ to XML (Eric White)
WordML is an XML file format for Microsoft Word documents. Since WordML files aren't terribly
pretty, this blogger wanted to take his files apart using LINQ to XML (known as XLinq when this
blog entry was written). It's an interesting take on what LINQ can accomplish.
LINQ to
XML in ASP.NET: Ajax-enabled XML document filtering (Mustafa Basgun)
Having created an Ajax- enabled Web application with a drop-down list bound to an XML document,
this blogger decided to share his brief lesson with the world.
Querying
XML documents with LINQ to XML and Creating
and modifying XML documents (Blocks4.NET Team Blog)
These articles provide a few LINQ to XML examples -- searching for elements in an XML document,
using lambda expressions (remember those?) and creating XML documents from scratch.
Transforming XML
with LINQ to XML (Steven Eichert)
It's not unusual for programmers to take raw XML and transform it into another XML format or into a
set of objects. Here one of the authors of Manning's LINQ in Action explains how such transformations can
be done with LINQ to XML.
*** Go on to the next section of the LINQ Learning Guide: LINQ to SQL
This was first published in February 2008