How do I cast a XElement as string in c#?

Question

Here is my code:

SqlConnection conn4 = new SqlConnection("Data Source=.\\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=test_BdbCSSQL01;Persist Security Info=False;Integrated Security=SSPI;");
conn4.Open();

string sql = "SELECT * FROM ERROROfSIDESStagingOUT";
SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(sql, conn4);
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
da.Fill(dt);
DataRow dr;
dr = dt.NewRow();
dt.Rows.Add(dr);

XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("XmlString.xml");
XNamespace ns = "https://uidataexchange.org/schemas";

var node = doc.Descendants(ns + "EmployerTPASeparationResponse");
var node2 = node.ElementAt(i);

        foreach (var param in node2.Elements())
        {

            try
            {
                if (dr[param.Name.LocalName].ToString() == "PriorIncidentOccurrence")
                {
                    var PriorIncidentDescendants = param.Descendants(ns + "PriorIncidentOccurrence");
                    dr["PriorIncidentID"] = PriorIncidentDescendants.ElementAt(0).Value;                                        
                }

                if (dr.Table.Columns.Contains(param.Name.LocalName))
                {
                    dr[param.Name.LocalName] = param.Value;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ee)
            {
                //TODO: SendMail
                string asdf = ee.ToString();
            }
        }
        SqlCommandBuilder sb = new SqlCommandBuilder(da);
        da.Update(dt);

if (conn4 != null)
{
    conn4.Close();
}

I am trying to cast dr[param.Name.LocalName] as type string. Both of the following do not work.

(string)dr[param.Name.LocalName]
dr[param.Name.LocalName].ToString()

But what do you need? The nested text node in such XElement or serialize the XElement so you get an XML fragment? — Matías Fidemraizer, May 13 '11 at 13:51
@Matias: I am trying to cast dr[param.Name.LocalName] to type string. — Zach, May 13 '11 at 13:54
I repeat the same question, because it seems you're not very sure of what result you want of this "cast"..? — Matías Fidemraizer, May 13 '11 at 13:56
You're not trying to cast an XElement, you're trying to cast an element of a DataRow, which is an object. What is it giving you so far? — Tesserex, May 13 '11 at 13:59
@Inuyasha, that's not technically correct. You can create a type that is castable to string. Although it's not usual and you certainly can't do it the way OP wants it to do. — svick, May 13 '11 at 18:19
@Inuyasha, see [Using Conversion Operators](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/85w54y0a.aspx). — svick, May 13 '11 at 19:51

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 13 '11 at 14:00

It is my guess, that you are calling dr[param.Name.LocalName] before you have assigned a value to that key in your first if statement.

You should probably state the error you recieve. I'm guessing it has nothing to do with casting...

You could try to check the value of param.Name.LocalName in the debugger (or print it with Debug.WriteLine) and make sure that the values are all valid column names in your DataRow.

How do I cast a XElement as string in c#?

1 Answers1