How to add an attribute to an XML with a count of that element with an element

Question

The xml has a number of NEWRECORDS that has some normal elements, followed by elements with elements in them. The elements that have subelements can occur anywhere from 0 to infinity and need to receive an attribute called count which has the occurences within the NEWRECORD. now i found out you can do a count on an element id and you can use linq to state to do it starting from a certain layer, but none of these elements are required and there are about 15 of them, would that mean searching 15 times? Or is there an easy way to add a count to the xml?

i have added the xml but cut out alot of information to keep it readable. in short, NAME and YEAR are elements not needing a count, since they are unique for the NEWRECORD and have no subelements (and are required). The others need a count attribute (and will have subelements) even if there is only 1 and could even be missing.

<NEWFILE>
    <NEWRECORD num="343">
        <NAME>Single Scheme</NAME>
        <YEAR>2005</YEAR>
        <SPS></SPS>
        <SPS></SPS>
        <SPS></SPS>
        <SPS></SPS>
        <SPS></SPS>
        <MODULATION_2005></MODULATION_2005>
        <MODULATION_2005></MODULATION_2005>
        <MODULATION_2005></MODULATION_2005>
        <ADDITIONAL></ADDITIONAL>
        <NOTES></NOTES>
        <PART_C2_HISTORY></PART_C2_HISTORY>
        <PART_C2_HISTORY></PART_C2_HISTORY>
        <PART_C2_HISTORY></PART_C2_HISTORY>
        <PART_C2_HISTORY></PART_C2_HISTORY>
        <PART_C2_HISTORY></PART_C2_HISTORY>
        <PART_C2_HISTORY></PART_C2_HISTORY>
        <PART_C2_HISTORY></PART_C2_HISTORY>
    </NEWRECORD>
        <NEWRECORD num="344">
        <NAME>Single Scheme</NAME>
        <YEAR>2005</YEAR>
        <SPS></SPS>
        <SPS></SPS>
        <MODULATION_2005></MODULATION_2005>
        <ADDITIONAL></ADDITIONAL>
        <PART_C2_HISTORY></PART_C2_HISTORY>
        <PART_C2_HISTORY></PART_C2_HISTORY>
        <PART_C2_HISTORY></PART_C2_HISTORY>
    </NEWRECORD>
</NEWFILE>

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:56

With some trial and error and use of various LINQ i made a method. considering i am a LINQ newbie and i nearly found no info on what i did (i got some help from here), i am quite happy with the outcome and tought it might be usefull to others. Also are there any enhancements i could make to this?

    public XDocument FormatcountPreProcData(XDocument inputDoc)
    {
        if (inputDoc != null)
        {
            var elementsToChange = inputDoc.Elements("NEWFILE").Elements("NEWRECORD").Elements();

            foreach (var element in elementsToChange)
            {
                if (element.Descendants().Any())
                {
                    Int32 count = inputDoc.Elements("NEWFILE").Elements("NEWRECORD").Elements(element.Name.ToString()).Count();
                    element.Add(new XAttribute("count", count));
                }
            }
        }
        return inputDoc;
    }

How to add an attribute to an XML with a count of that element with an element

1 Answers1