XPathNavigator.Clone Method

Definition

Namespace:

System.Xml.XPath

Assembly:

System.Xml.ReaderWriter.dll

Source:

XPathNavigator.cs

When overridden in a derived class, creates a new XPathNavigator positioned at the same node as this XPathNavigator.

public:
 abstract System::Xml::XPath::XPathNavigator ^ Clone();

public abstract System.Xml.XPath.XPathNavigator Clone ();

abstract member Clone : unit -> System.Xml.XPath.XPathNavigator

Public MustOverride Function Clone () As XPathNavigator

Returns

XPathNavigator

A new XPathNavigator positioned at the same node as this XPathNavigator.

Examples

The following example gets all book titles authored by Herman Melville.

XPathDocument^ document = gcnew XPathDocument("books.xml");
XPathNavigator^ navigator = document->CreateNavigator();

// Select all books authored by Melville.
XPathNodeIterator^ nodes = navigator->Select("descendant::book[author/last-name='Melville']");

while (nodes->MoveNext())
{
    // Clone the navigator returned by the Current property. 
    // Use the cloned navigator to get the title element.
    XPathNavigator^ clone = nodes->Current->Clone();
    clone->MoveToFirstChild();
    Console::WriteLine("Book title: {0}", clone->Value);
}

XPathDocument document = new XPathDocument("books.xml");
XPathNavigator navigator = document.CreateNavigator();

// Select all books authored by Melville.
XPathNodeIterator nodes = navigator.Select("descendant::book[author/last-name='Melville']");

while (nodes.MoveNext())
{
    // Clone the navigator returned by the Current property.
    // Use the cloned navigator to get the title element.
    XPathNavigator clone = nodes.Current.Clone();
    clone.MoveToFirstChild();
    Console.WriteLine("Book title: {0}", clone.Value);
}

Dim document As XPathDocument = New XPathDocument("books.xml")
Dim navigator As XPathNavigator = document.CreateNavigator()

' Select all books authored by Melville.
Dim nodes As XPathNodeIterator = navigator.Select("descendant::book[author/last-name='Melville']")

While nodes.MoveNext()
    ' Clone the navigator returned by the Current property. 
    ' Use the cloned navigator to get the title element.
    Dim clone As XPathNavigator = nodes.Current.Clone()
    clone.MoveToFirstChild()
    Console.WriteLine("Book title: {0}", clone.Value)
End While

The example takes the books.xml file as an input.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>   
<bookstore>  
    <book genre="autobiography" publicationdate="1981-03-22" ISBN="1-861003-11-0">  
        <title>The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin</title>  
        <author>  
            <first-name>Benjamin</first-name>  
            <last-name>Franklin</last-name>  
        </author>  
        <price>8.99</price>  
    </book>  
    <book genre="novel" publicationdate="1967-11-17" ISBN="0-201-63361-2">  
        <title>The Confidence Man</title>  
        <author>  
            <first-name>Herman</first-name>  
            <last-name>Melville</last-name>  
        </author>  
        <price>11.99</price>  
    </book>  
    <book genre="philosophy" publicationdate="1991-02-15" ISBN="1-861001-57-6">  
        <title>The Gorgias</title>  
        <author>  
            <name>Plato</name>  
        </author>  
        <price>9.99</price>  
    </book>  
</bookstore>  

Remarks

The Clone method is especially useful in conjunction with the XPathNodeIterator. An XPathNodeIterator is used to iterate over a selected node set, and contains a Current property which returns an XPathNavigator positioned on the context node of the XPathNodeIterator. However, the XPathNavigator returned by the Current property cannot be used to move away from the node set. Instead, you clone the returned XPathNavigator and use the cloned navigator to do any additional moves.

The cloned XPathNavigator is not affected by subsequent changes to the original XPathNavigator.