XElement.Parse Method

Definition

Namespace:

System.Xml.Linq

Assemblies:

netstandard.dll, System.Xml.XDocument.dll

Load an XElement from a string that contains XML, optionally preserving white space and retaining line information.

Overloads

Parse(String)	Load an XElement from a string that contains XML.
Parse(String, LoadOptions)	Load an XElement from a string that contains XML, optionally preserving white space and retaining line information.

Parse(String)

Source:

XElement.cs

Load an XElement from a string that contains XML.

C#

public static System.Xml.Linq.XElement Parse(string text);

Parameters

text

String

A String that contains XML.

Returns

XElement

An XElement populated from the string that contains XML.

Examples

The following example creates a string that contains XML. It then parses the string into an XElement.

C#

XElement xmlTree = XElement.Parse("<Root> <Child> </Child> </Root>");
Console.WriteLine(xmlTree);

This example produces the following output:

XML

<Root>
  <Child></Child>
</Root>

Remarks

This method does not preserve white space. If you want to preserve white space in the XML tree, use the overload of the Parse method that takes LoadOptions as a parameter. For more information, see Preserve white space while loading or parsing XML and Preserve white space while serializing.

LINQ to XML's loading functionality is built upon XmlReader. Therefore, you might catch any exceptions that are thrown by the XmlReader.Create overload methods and the XmlReader methods that read and parse the document.

See also

• LINQ to XML overview

Parse(String, LoadOptions)

Source:

XElement.cs

Load an XElement from a string that contains XML, optionally preserving white space and retaining line information.

C#

public static System.Xml.Linq.XElement Parse(string text, System.Xml.Linq.LoadOptions options);

Parameters

text

String

A String that contains XML.

options

LoadOptions

A LoadOptions that specifies white space behavior, and whether to load base URI and line information.

Returns

XElement

An XElement populated from the string that contains XML.

Examples

The following example parses a string into an XElement in two different ways: preserving white space, and not preserving white space. It then uses a query to determine the number of white space nodes in the resulting XML tree.

C#

int whiteSpaceNodes;

XElement xmlTree1 = XElement.Parse("<Root> <Child> </Child> </Root>",
    LoadOptions.None);
whiteSpaceNodes = xmlTree1
    .DescendantNodesAndSelf()
    .OfType<XText>()
    .Where(tNode => tNode.ToString().Trim().Length == 0)
    .Count();
Console.WriteLine("Count of white space nodes (not preserving whitespace): {0}",
    whiteSpaceNodes);

XElement xmlTree2 = XElement.Parse("<Root> <Child> </Child> </Root>",
    LoadOptions.PreserveWhitespace);
whiteSpaceNodes = xmlTree2
    .DescendantNodesAndSelf()
    .OfType<XText>()
    .Where(tNode => tNode.ToString().Trim().Length == 0)
    .Count();
Console.WriteLine("Count of white space nodes (preserving whitespace): {0}",
    whiteSpaceNodes);

This example produces the following output:

Count of white space nodes (not preserving whitespace): 0
Count of white space nodes (preserving whitespace): 3

The following example retains line information as it parses the string.

C#

string markup =
@"<Root>
    <Child>
        <GrandChild/>
    </Child>
</Root>";

XElement xRoot = XElement.Parse(markup, LoadOptions.SetLineInfo);
Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}{2}",
    "Element Name".PadRight(20),
    "Line".PadRight(5),
    "Position");
Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}{2}",
    "------------".PadRight(20),
    "----".PadRight(5),
    "--------");
foreach (XElement e in xRoot.DescendantsAndSelf())
    Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}{2}",
        ("".PadRight(e.Ancestors().Count() * 2) + e.Name).PadRight(20),
        ((IXmlLineInfo)e).LineNumber.ToString().PadRight(5),
        ((IXmlLineInfo)e).LinePosition);

This example produces the following output:

Element Name        Line Position
------------        ---- --------
Root                1    2
  Child             2    6
    GrandChild      3    10

Remarks

If the source XML is indented, setting the PreserveWhitespace flag in options causes the reader to read all white space in the source XML. Nodes of type XText are created for both significant and insignificant white space.

If the source XML is indented, not setting the PreserveWhitespace flag in options causes the reader to ignore all of the insignificant white space in the source XML. The XML tree is created without any text nodes for insignificant white space.

If the source XML is not indented, setting the PreserveWhitespace flag in options has no effect. Significant white space is still preserved, and there are no spans of insignificant white space that could cause the creation of more white space text nodes.

For more information, see Preserve white space while loading or parsing XML and Preserve white space while serializing.

Setting SetBaseUri will have no effect when parsing from a String.

The XmlReader may have a valid line information or not. If you set SetLineInfo, the line information will be set in the XML tree from the line information that is reported by the XmlReader.

There is a performance penalty if you set the SetLineInfo flag.

The line information is accurate immediately after loading the XML document. If you modify the XML tree after loading the document, the line information may become meaningless.

LINQ to XML's loading functionality is built upon XmlReader. Therefore, you might catch any exceptions that are thrown by the XmlReader.Create overload methods and the XmlReader methods that read and parse the document.

See also

• LINQ to XML overview