XmlDocument.GetElementsByTagName Method

Definition

Namespace:

System.Xml

Assembly:

System.Xml.ReaderWriter.dll

Returns an XmlNodeList containing a list of all descendant elements that match the specified name.

Overloads

GetElementsByTagName(String)	Returns an XmlNodeList containing a list of all descendant elements that match the specified Name.
GetElementsByTagName(String, String)	Returns an XmlNodeList containing a list of all descendant elements that match the specified LocalName and NamespaceURI.

GetElementsByTagName(String)

Source:

XmlDocument.cs

Returns an XmlNodeList containing a list of all descendant elements that match the specified Name.

public:
 virtual System::Xml::XmlNodeList ^ GetElementsByTagName(System::String ^ name);

public virtual System.Xml.XmlNodeList GetElementsByTagName (string name);

abstract member GetElementsByTagName : string -> System.Xml.XmlNodeList
override this.GetElementsByTagName : string -> System.Xml.XmlNodeList

Public Overridable Function GetElementsByTagName (name As String) As XmlNodeList

Parameters

name

String

The qualified name to match. It is matched against the Name property of the matching node. The special value "*" matches all tags.

Returns

XmlNodeList

An XmlNodeList containing a list of all matching nodes. If no nodes match name, the returned collection will be empty.

Examples

The following example creates a XmlDocument object and uses the GetElementsByTagName method and the resulting XmlNodeList object to display all the book titles.

#using <System.Xml.dll>

using namespace System;
using namespace System::IO;
using namespace System::Xml;

int main()
{
   //Create the XmlDocument.
   XmlDocument^ doc = gcnew XmlDocument;
   doc->Load( "books.xml" );
   
   //Display all the book titles.
   XmlNodeList^ elemList = doc->GetElementsByTagName( "title" );
   for ( int i = 0; i < elemList->Count; i++ )
   {
      Console::WriteLine( elemList[ i ]->InnerXml );
   }
}

using System;
using System.Xml;

public class Sample1
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        //Create the XmlDocument.
        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
        doc.Load("books.xml");

        //Display all the book titles.
        XmlNodeList elemList = doc.GetElementsByTagName("title");
        for (int i = 0; i < elemList.Count; i++)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(elemList[i].InnerXml);
        }
    }
}

Option Explicit
Option Strict

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Xml

Public Class Sample
    
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        'Create the XmlDocument.
        Dim doc As New XmlDocument()
        doc.Load("books.xml")
        
        'Display all the book titles.
        Dim elemList As XmlNodeList = doc.GetElementsByTagName("title")
        Dim i As Integer
        For i = 0 To elemList.Count - 1
            Console.WriteLine(elemList(i).InnerXml)
        Next i
    End Sub
End Class

The example uses the books.xml file as input.

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!-- This file represents a fragment of a book store inventory database -->
<bookstore>
  <book genre="autobiography" publicationdate="1981" ISBN="1-861003-11-0">
    <title>The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin</title>
    <author>
      <first-name>Benjamin</first-name>
      <last-name>Franklin</last-name>
    </author>
    <price>8.99</price>
  </book>
  <book genre="novel" publicationdate="1967" ISBN="0-201-63361-2">
    <title>The Confidence Man</title>
    <author>
      <first-name>Herman</first-name>
      <last-name>Melville</last-name>
    </author>
    <price>11.99</price>
  </book>
  <book genre="philosophy" publicationdate="1991" ISBN="1-861001-57-6">
    <title>The Gorgias</title>
    <author>
      <name>Plato</name>
    </author>
    <price>9.99</price>
  </book>
</bookstore>

Remarks

The nodes are placed in the order in which they would be encountered in the document.

Note

It is recommended that you use the XmlNode.SelectNodes or XmlNode.SelectSingleNode method instead of the GetElementsByTagName method.

GetElementsByTagName(String, String)

Source:

XmlDocument.cs

Returns an XmlNodeList containing a list of all descendant elements that match the specified LocalName and NamespaceURI.

public:
 virtual System::Xml::XmlNodeList ^ GetElementsByTagName(System::String ^ localName, System::String ^ namespaceURI);

public virtual System.Xml.XmlNodeList GetElementsByTagName (string localName, string namespaceURI);

abstract member GetElementsByTagName : string * string -> System.Xml.XmlNodeList
override this.GetElementsByTagName : string * string -> System.Xml.XmlNodeList

Public Overridable Function GetElementsByTagName (localName As String, namespaceURI As String) As XmlNodeList

Parameters

localName

String

The LocalName to match. The special value "*" matches all tags.

namespaceURI

String

NamespaceURI to match.

Returns

XmlNodeList

An XmlNodeList containing a list of all matching nodes. If no nodes match the specified localName and namespaceURI, the returned collection will be empty.

Remarks

The nodes are placed in the order in which they would be encountered in the document tree.

Note

It is recommended that you use the XmlNode.SelectNodes or XmlNode.SelectSingleNode method instead of the GetElementsByTagName method.