How to search XML files with XPath, returning line and column number(s) of found node(s) with C#?

Question

I want to search with C# through about hundred human readable, indented XML files, using XPath expression, and it shall return the file name and the line position (and column position would be a nice to have) of each found node, matching the XPath.

My target is: All these files are deserialized to an object tree with dozens of classes and even more instances in a program. And it's classes are sometimes very historically built and need evolution/clean up/refactoring. Before changing I want to check, whether the changed part is used anywhere, because the files are in use with different customers. Later I will automatically change the XML files with XSLT, along with code improvements.

The luxury idea is to build a VS2010 plugin for searching in files - like the normal "find in files" dialog, but with XPath as search pattern.

I found - up to now - nothing suitable here, just something like the reverse of my question: How to find an XML node from a line and column number in C#? but as input there would be the XPath expression, not the node.

Answer 1

I solved it this way (summary of following code):

1. reading each file into an instance of XPathDocument
2. use of method CreateNavigator
3. use of method Select with regular XPath expression
4. process each found node:
   1. evaluate the absolute position recursively in the xml node tree of this document by
      • XPathNavigator.MoveToPrevious()
      • XPathNavigator.MoveToParent()
      • until there is no previous/parent any more
      • the result is a List that can be written as 'absolute' XPath like e. g. //*[1]/*[10]/*[1]/*[3], what identifies the same node as found .
   2. read the whole XML file once again, but with an XML reader (using the sample code of http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.ixmllineinfo%28v=vs.110%29)
   3. adapting that code, that the 'absolute' position of the current node is known and comparing it with the found 'absolute' position, until found
   4. if it is found, the current node of the XmlReader contains the finally needed information:
      • line number and column number of the searched node in the XML file :-)

Here is the quickly written code sample (method search is the entry point):

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml.XPath;
using System.Xml;
using System.IO;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace XmlFileSearchMVP
{

    public class XmlFileSearchModel : IXmlFileSearchModel
    {
        public XmlFileSearchModel()
        {

        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Search in all files (fitting the wildcard pattern in <paramref name="filter"/>) from the directory
        /// <paramref name="path"/> for the XPath and report each found position in a string in the return value with
        /// the informations:
        /// + absolute file name path
        /// + number of found occurrence
        /// + line number
        /// + column number
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="path">file system path, containing the XML files, that have to be searched</param>
        /// <param name="filter">file name with wildcards, e. g. "*.xml" or "*.mscx" or "*.gpx"</param>
        /// <param name="xPath">XPath expression (currently only Xml Node resulting XPaths ok)</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public IList<string> Search(string path, string filter, string xPath)
        {

            string[] files = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(path, filter);

            var result = new List<string>();

            for (int i = 0; i < files.Length; i++)
            {
                XPathDocument xpd = new XPathDocument(files[i]);
                var xpn = xpd.CreateNavigator();
                var xpni = xpn.Select(xPath);

                int foundCounter = 0;
                while (xpni.MoveNext())
                {
                    foundCounter++;
                    var xn = xpni.Current;

                    var xnc = xn.Clone();

                    List<int> positions = new List<int>();
                    GetPositions(xn, ref positions);
                    string absXPath = GetAbsoluteXPath(positions);

                    // ok if xPath is looking for an element
                    var xpn2 = xpn.SelectSingleNode(absXPath);
                    bool samePosition = xnc.IsSamePosition(xpn2);

                    int y = -1;
                    int x = -1;
                    bool gotIt = GotFilePosition(files[i], positions, ref y, ref x);

                    result.Add(string.Format("{0} No. {1}: {2} {3} line {4}, col {5}", files[i], foundCounter, absXPath, gotIt, y, x));

                }
                result.Add(files[i] + " " + foundCounter.ToString());
            }



            return result;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Evaluates the absolute position of the current node.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="node"></param>
        /// <param name="positions">Lists the number of node in the according level, including root, that is first element. Positions start at 1.</param>
        private static void GetPositions(XPathNavigator node, ref List<int> positions)
        {
            int pos = 1;

            while (node.MoveToPrevious())
            {
                pos++;
            }

            if (node.MoveToParent())
            {
                positions.Insert(0, pos);
                GetPositions(node, ref positions);
            }
        }

        private static string GetAbsoluteXPath(List<int> positions)
        {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("/", positions.Count * 5 + 1); // at least required...

            foreach (var pos in positions)
            {
                sb.AppendFormat("/*[{0}]", pos);
            }

            return sb.ToString();

        }


        /// <summary>
        /// base code from
        /// http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.ixmllineinfo%28v=vs.110%29
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="xmlFile"></param>
        /// <param name="positions"></param>
        /// <param name="line"></param>
        /// <param name="column"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public static bool GotFilePosition(string xmlFile, List<int> positions, ref int line, ref int column)
        {

            // Create the XmlNamespaceManager.
            XmlNamespaceManager nsmgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(new NameTable());

            // Create the XmlParserContext.
            XmlParserContext context = new XmlParserContext(null, nsmgr, null, XmlSpace.None);

            // Create the reader.
            using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(xmlFile, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
            {
                List<int> currPos = new List<int>();
                XmlValidatingReader reader = new XmlValidatingReader(fs, XmlNodeType.Element, context);

                try
                {
                    IXmlLineInfo lineInfo = ((IXmlLineInfo)reader);
                    if (lineInfo.HasLineInfo())
                    {

                        // Parse the XML and display each node.
                        while (reader.Read())
                        {

                            switch (reader.NodeType)
                            {
                                case XmlNodeType.Document:
                                case XmlNodeType.Element:
                                    Trace.Write(string.Format("{0} {1},{2}  ", reader.Depth, lineInfo.LineNumber, lineInfo.LinePosition));

                                    if (currPos.Count <= reader.Depth)
                                    {
                                        currPos.Add(1);
                                    }
                                    else
                                    {
                                        currPos[reader.Depth]++;
                                    }
                                    Trace.WriteLine(string.Format("<{0}> {1}", reader.Name, GetAbsoluteXPath(currPos)));

                                    if (HasFound(currPos, positions))
                                    {
                                        line = lineInfo.LineNumber;
                                        column = lineInfo.LinePosition;
                                        return true;
                                    }
                                    break;

                                case XmlNodeType.Text:
                                    Trace.Write(string.Format("{0} {1},{2}  ", reader.Depth, lineInfo.LineNumber, lineInfo.LinePosition));
                                    Trace.WriteLine(string.Format("{0} {1}", reader.Value, GetAbsoluteXPath(currPos)));
                                    break;

                                case XmlNodeType.EndElement:
                                    Trace.Write(string.Format("{0} {1},{2}  ", reader.Depth, lineInfo.LineNumber, lineInfo.LinePosition));
                                    while (reader.Depth < currPos.Count - 1)
                                    {
                                        currPos.RemoveAt(reader.Depth + 1); // currPos.Count - 1 would work too.
                                    }
                                    Trace.WriteLine(string.Format("</{0}> {1}", reader.Name, GetAbsoluteXPath(currPos)));
                                    break;

                                case XmlNodeType.Whitespace:
                                case XmlNodeType.XmlDeclaration: // 1st read in XML document - hopefully
                                    break;
                                case XmlNodeType.Attribute:

                                case XmlNodeType.CDATA:

                                case XmlNodeType.Comment:

                                case XmlNodeType.DocumentFragment:

                                case XmlNodeType.DocumentType:

                                case XmlNodeType.EndEntity:

                                case XmlNodeType.Entity:

                                case XmlNodeType.EntityReference:

                                case XmlNodeType.None:

                                case XmlNodeType.Notation:

                                case XmlNodeType.ProcessingInstruction:

                                case XmlNodeType.SignificantWhitespace:
                                    break;

                            }


                        }

                    }

                }
                finally
                {
                    reader.Close();
                }
                // Close the reader.

            }
            return false;
        }

        private static bool HasFound(List<int> currPos, List<int> positions)
        {
            if (currPos.Count < positions.Count)
            {
                return false; // tree is not yet so deep traversed, like the target node
            }

            for (int i = 0; i < positions.Count; i++)
            {
                if (currPos[i] != positions[i])
                {
                    return false;
                }
            }
            return true;
        }


    }
}

Answer 2

This sample should get you started:

using (StringReader stream = new StringReader(xml))
{
    XPathDocument document = new XPathDocument(stream);
    XPathNavigator navigator = document.CreateNavigator();

    XPathExpression expression = navigator.Compile("/path/to/element");
    XPathNodeIterator iterator = navigator.Select(expression);

    try
    {
        while (iterator.MoveNext())
        {
            XPathNavigator current = iterator.Current;
            string elementValue = current.Value;

            IXmlLineInfo lineInfo = current as IXmlLineInfo;
            if (lineInfo != null)
            {
                int lineNumber = lineInfo.LineNumber;
                int linePosition = lineInfo.LinePosition;
            }
        }
    }
    catch
    {
    }
}