LINQ to XML : Modifying XML document

You have XML document now you want to modify that XML file using LINQ to XML. It is as easy as you generally modify any database column value.

 

Let us create a dummy XML stream,

 

//Create dummy XML to work

var root = new XElement("parent",

    from i in new int[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }

    select new XElement("child",

        new XAttribute("number", i)));

 

This will create XML like,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<parent>

  <child number="1" />

  <child number="2" />

  <child number="3" />

  <child number="4" />

  <child number="5" />

  <child number="6" />

</parent>

 

Let us play with this XML file,

 

//Get the element (child3)

XElement child3 = root.Descendants("child").First(

    el => (int)el.Attribute("number") == 3);

//Add element before the child3

child3.AddBeforeSelf(new XElement("child25"));

//Add sub-element to the child3

child3.Add(new XElement("grandchild"));

//Add element after the child3

child3.AddAfterSelf(new XElement("child35"));

//Add attribute to the child3

child3.Add(new XAttribute("attr", "something"));

//Change the existing attribute

child3.SetAttributeValue("number", 100);

After all these activities you will get the following output,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<parent>

  <child number="1" />

  <child number="2" />

  <child25 />

  <child number="100" attr="something">

    <grandchild />

  </child>

  <child35 />

  <child number="4" />

  <child number="5" />

  <child number="6" />

</parent>

Highlighted part is the modified portion of your XML. You can also remove an element,

child3.Remove();

Namoskar!!!

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 23, 2008
  Welcome to the forty-third issue of Community Convergence. The last few weeks have been consumed by the

• Anonymous
  April 26, 2008
  how to connect database ms access from html file ... bcoz i want to need save datas in ms access table using html program tags. how to save datas using html will u pls send me a example code incase i was using any script language in my html code ? pls send me a example code for how to connect Ms access from html

• Anonymous
  April 27, 2008
  Hi, Thanks very much.  I am a beginner and found your link off of Charlie.

• Anonymous
  April 01, 2009
  Thanks a lot for this clear and concise article. Helps me a lot :)

• Anonymous
  May 02, 2009
  thank you so much for such a nice post. but please tell me one thing, how do i save this xml into a xml file.?

• Anonymous
  May 08, 2009
  @Zain Shaikh, root.Save() as per the example.

• Anonymous
  December 24, 2009
  Thanks dude. It's a nice quick reference that helped me a lot!

• Anonymous
  October 14, 2010
  thanks for this, but i want to add a sub_element having an atribute. how can i do that?

• Anonymous
  June 08, 2012
  Hi, How to OrderBy an XML file by using LINQ-XML after adding an element into it? string NewRecord = txtAddNew.Text;        XDocument xmldoc =Datalayer.GetXmlDataVV();        xmldoc.Element("root").Add(new XElement("V", new XElement("Venue", NewRecord)));        xmldoc.Save(Datalayer.filepath); Thanks in Advance.