How to parse documents with or without xml namespaces?

Question

I have some XML files to parse, some of them are like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ab:rootNode xmlns:ab="http://www.uri.com">
    <ab:nodeDate>...</ab:nodeDate>
</ab:rootNode>

and other of them are without namespace:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rootNode>
    <nodeDate>...</nodeDate>
</node>

In LINQ to XML, I should to precise the namespace otherwise it don't fine any nodes. How to manage namespaces? Do I test if xmlns:ab="http://www.uri.com" exist in the rootNode element? and if it exists I create a XNamespace and add it to the name element like this (pseudo code):

XNamespace ab = "http://www.uri.com";
string prefixe = String.Empty;

if (XmlNamespaceExists(ab , "rootNode")
{
   prefixe = ab;
}

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 21 '11 at 09:28

You could use:

XNamespace ns = doc.Root.Name.Namespace;
var dates = doc.Descendants(ns + "nodeDate");

I believe that should work whether or not namespaces are used - it just ends up finding every nodeDate element with the same namespace as the root element.

How to parse documents with or without xml namespaces?

1 Answers1