XNode Class

Microsoft Silverlight will reach end of support after October 2021. Learn more.

Represents the abstract concept of a node (one of: element, comment, document type, processing instruction, or text node) in the XML tree.

Inheritance Hierarchy

System.Object
  System.Xml.Linq.XObject
    System.Xml.Linq.XNode
      System.Xml.Linq.XComment
      System.Xml.Linq.XContainer
      System.Xml.Linq.XDocumentType
      System.Xml.Linq.XProcessingInstruction
      System.Xml.Linq.XText

Namespace:  System.Xml.Linq
Assembly:  System.Xml.Linq (in System.Xml.Linq.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
Public MustInherit Class XNode _
    Inherits XObject

public abstract class XNode : XObject

The XNode type exposes the following members.

Properties

	Name	Description
	BaseUri	Gets the base URI for this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	Document	Gets the XDocument for this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	DocumentOrderComparer	Gets a comparer that can compare the relative position of two nodes.
	EqualityComparer	Gets a comparer that can compare two nodes for value equality.
	NextNode	Gets the next sibling node of this node.
	NodeType	Gets the node type for this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	Parent	Gets the parent XElement of this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	PreviousNode	Gets the previous sibling node of this node.

Top

Methods

	Name	Description
	AddAfterSelf(Object)	Adds the specified content immediately after this node.
	AddAfterSelf(array<Object[])	Adds the specified content immediately after this node.
	AddAnnotation	Adds an object to the annotation list of this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	AddBeforeSelf(Object)	Adds the specified content immediately before this node.
	AddBeforeSelf(array<Object[])	Adds the specified content immediately before this node.
	Ancestors()	Returns a collection of the ancestor elements of this node.
	Ancestors(XName)	Returns a filtered collection of the ancestor elements of this node. Only elements that have a matching XName are included in the collection.
	Annotation(Type)	Gets the first annotation object of the specified type from this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	Annotation<T>()	Get the first annotation object of the specified type from this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	Annotations(Type)	Gets a collection of annotations of the specified type for this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	Annotations<T>()	Gets a collection of annotations of the specified type for this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	CompareDocumentOrder	Compares two nodes to determine their relative XML document order.
	CreateReader()	Creates an XmlReader for this node.
	CreateReader(ReaderOptions)	Creates an XmlReader for this node.
	DeepEquals	Compares the values of two nodes, including the values of all descendant nodes.
	ElementsAfterSelf()	Returns a collection of the sibling elements after this node, in document order.
	ElementsAfterSelf(XName)	Returns a filtered collection of the sibling elements after this node, in document order. Only elements that have a matching XName are included in the collection.
	ElementsBeforeSelf()	Returns a collection of the sibling elements before this node, in document order.
	ElementsBeforeSelf(XName)	Returns a filtered collection of the sibling elements before this node, in document order. Only elements that have a matching XName are included in the collection.
	Equals(Object)	Determines whether the specified Object is equal to the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
	Finalize	Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before the Object is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from Object.)
	GetHashCode	Serves as a hash function for a particular type. (Inherited from Object.)
	GetType	Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.)
	IsAfter	Determines if the current node appears after a specified node in terms of document order.
	IsBefore	Determines if the current node appears before a specified node in terms of document order.
	MemberwiseClone	Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
	NodesAfterSelf	Returns a collection of the sibling nodes after this node, in document order.
	NodesBeforeSelf	Returns a collection of the sibling nodes before this node, in document order.
	ReadFrom	Creates an XNode from an XmlReader.
	Remove	Removes this node from its parent.
	RemoveAnnotations(Type)	Removes the annotations of the specified type from this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	RemoveAnnotations<T>()	Removes the annotations of the specified type from this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	ReplaceWith(Object)	Replaces this node with the specified content.
	ReplaceWith(array<Object[])	Replaces this node with the specified content.
	ToString()	Returns the indented XML for this node. (Overrides Object.ToString().)
	ToString(SaveOptions)	Returns the XML for this node, optionally disabling formatting.
	WriteTo	Writes this node to an XmlWriter.

Top

Events

	Name	Description
	Changed	Raised when this XObject or any of its descendants have changed. (Inherited from XObject.)
	Changing	Raised when this XObject or any of its descendants are about to change. (Inherited from XObject.)

Top

Extension Methods

	Name	Description
	CreateNavigator()	Overloaded. Creates an XPathNavigator for an XNode. (Defined by Extensions.)
	CreateNavigator(XmlNameTable)	Overloaded. Creates an XPathNavigator for an XNode. The XmlNameTable enables more efficient XPath expression processing. (Defined by Extensions.)
	XPathEvaluate(String)	Overloaded. Evaluates an XPath expression. (Defined by Extensions.)
	XPathEvaluate(String, IXmlNamespaceResolver)	Overloaded. Evaluates an XPath expression, resolving namespace prefixes using the specified IXmlNamespaceResolver. (Defined by Extensions.)
	XPathSelectElement(String)	Overloaded. Selects an XElement using a XPath expression. (Defined by Extensions.)
	XPathSelectElement(String, IXmlNamespaceResolver)	Overloaded. Selects an XElement using a XPath expression, resolving namespace prefixes using the specified IXmlNamespaceResolver. (Defined by Extensions.)
	XPathSelectElements(String)	Overloaded. Selects a collection of elements using an XPath expression. (Defined by Extensions.)
	XPathSelectElements(String, IXmlNamespaceResolver)	Overloaded. Selects a collection of elements using an XPath expression, resolving namespace prefixes using the specified IXmlNamespaceResolver. (Defined by Extensions.)

Top

Explicit Interface Implementations

	Name	Description
	IXmlLineInfo.HasLineInfo	Gets a value indicating whether or not this XObject has line information. (Inherited from XObject.)
	IXmlLineInfo.LineNumber	Gets the line number that the underlying XmlReader reported for this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)
	IXmlLineInfo.LinePosition	Gets the line position that the underlying XmlReader reported for this XObject. (Inherited from XObject.)

Top

Remarks

XNode is an abstract common base class for:

• XComment

• XContainer

• XDocumentType

• XProcessingInstruction

• XText

XContainer is an abstract common base class for:

• XDocument

• XElement

Objects of classes that derive from XContainer can contain children nodes.

Note:
An XAttribute is not an XNode. Attributes are maintained as a list of name/value pairs on an element.

If you are writing a complex XML application, such as an XML editor or a word processor that stores content as XML, you will often work at the node level. Typical activities when working at the node level include adding nodes, deleting nodes, transforming nodes, and iterating through axes that return collections of nodes.

Examples

The following example creates an XML tree with some elements. It then creates a List<T> of XNode that contains some elements from the XML tree at random. It sorts the list, using this property to retrieve a XNodeDocumentOrderComparer, which implements the System.Collections.IComparer and System.Collections.Generic.IComparer<T> interfaces.

Dim output As New StringBuilder
Dim xmlTree As XElement = _
        <Root>
            <Child1>1</Child1>
            <Child2>2</Child2>
            <Child3>3</Child3>
            <Child4>4</Child4>
            <Child5>5</Child5>
        </Root>

Dim nodeDictionary As Dictionary(Of XNode, String) = New Dictionary(Of XNode, String)(XNode.EqualityComparer)
nodeDictionary.Add(xmlTree.Element("Child5"), "Child 5 Information")
nodeDictionary.Add(xmlTree.Element("Child3"), "Child 3 Information")
nodeDictionary.Add(xmlTree.Element("Child1"), "Child 1 Information")

Dim str As String = nodeDictionary(xmlTree.Element("Child3"))
output.Append(str)
output.Append(Environment.NewLine)

OutputTextBlock.Text = output.ToString()

StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();
XElement xmlTree = new XElement("Root",
    new XElement("Child1", 1),
    new XElement("Child2", 2),
    new XElement("Child3", 3),
    new XElement("Child4", 4),
    new XElement("Child5", 5)
);

List<XNode> nodeList = new List<XNode>();
nodeList.Add(xmlTree.Element("Child5"));
nodeList.Add(xmlTree.Element("Child3"));
nodeList.Add(xmlTree.Element("Child1"));

// Sort nodes in document order.
nodeList.Sort(XNode.DocumentOrderComparer);

foreach (XElement el in nodeList)
    output.Append(el + Environment.NewLine);

OutputTextBlock.Text = output.ToString();

Version Information

Silverlight

Supported in: 5, 4, 3

Silverlight for Windows Phone

Supported in: Windows Phone OS 7.1, Windows Phone OS 7.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: Xbox 360, Windows Phone OS 7.0

Platforms

For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.

Thread Safety

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

See Also

Reference

System.Xml.Linq Namespace

Other Resources

Processing XML Data with LINQ to XML (Silverlight)