Parse XML without namespace

Question

Hello

When parsing this kind of xml, I need to get the number of elementCount and the following 2 fields:

OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor

OPFCategoryCopyName

Here's my working code:

Dim MyXML As XElement = XElement.Load(MemoryStream)
Dim count As Integer = Integer.Parse(MyXML.@elementCount)
For Each MyXElement As XElement In MyXML.Elements
Dim Components As String() = MyXElement.@OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor.Split()
R = Single.Parse(Components(0).Substring(2))
G = Single.Parse(Components(1).Substring(2))
B = Single.Parse(Components(2).Substring(2))
EName = MyXElement.@OPFCategoryCopyName

Is it possible to obtain the above 3 fields using XmlDocument rather than XElement?

Xml sample:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<categories elementCount="18">
  <category xml:space="preserve" OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor="r:0.57 g:0.48 b:0.82" OPFCategoryCopyName="Birthday"></category>
  <category xml:space="preserve" OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor="r:0.45 g:0.60 b:0.88" OPFCategoryCopyName="Blue category"></category>
  <category xml:space="preserve" OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor="r:0.92 g:0.79 b:0.40" OPFCategoryCopyName="Brown Category"></category>
  <category xml:space="preserve" OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor="r:0.63 g:0.26 b:0.80" OPFCategoryCopyName="Family"></category>
</categories>

Thanks in advance :)

• Update, found this:

For Each el As XmlNode In doc.SelectNodes("/categories/category")
        MsgBox(el.Attributes.GetNamedItem("OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor").Value)
Next

The only question, both following codes will work:

el.Attributes.GetNamedItem("OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor").Value
vs
el.Attributes("OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor").Value

So which one is safer or recommended to use?

Thanks :)

Answer 1

Hi @StewartBW ,

1. el.Attributes.GetNamedItem("OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor").Value:
   • Uses GetNamedItem method to get the attribute by name.
2. el.Attributes("OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor").Value:
   • Uses the default Attributes collection's indexer to get the attribute by name, which is more concise.

Both approaches are valid, but the el.Attributes("OPFCategoryCopyBackgroundColor").Value method is shorter and commonly used, making it a bit more readable and recommended.

Best Regards.

Jiachen Li

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