XContainer.DescendantNodes Method

Definition

Namespace:

System.Xml.Linq

Assembly:

System.Xml.XDocument.dll

Source:

XContainer.cs

Returns a collection of the descendant nodes for this document or element, in document order.

public:
 System::Collections::Generic::IEnumerable<System::Xml::Linq::XNode ^> ^ DescendantNodes();

public System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<System.Xml.Linq.XNode> DescendantNodes ();

member this.DescendantNodes : unit -> seq<System.Xml.Linq.XNode>

Public Function DescendantNodes () As IEnumerable(Of XNode)

Returns

IEnumerable<XNode>

An IEnumerable<T> of XNode containing the descendant nodes of the XContainer, in document order.

Examples

The following example creates an XML tree, and then iterates through the DescendantNodes axis.

XElement xmlTree = new XElement("Root",  
    // Attributes are not nodes, so will not be returned by DescendantNodes.  
    new XAttribute("Att1", "AttributeContent"),  
    new XElement("Child",  
        new XElement("GrandChild", "element content")  
    )  
);  
IEnumerable<XNode> dnas =  
    from node in xmlTree.DescendantNodes()  
    select node;  
foreach (XNode node in dnas)  
{  
    if (node is XElement)  
        Console.WriteLine((node as XElement).Name);  
    else  
        Console.WriteLine(node);  
}  

' Attributes are not nodes, so will not be returned by DescendantNodes.  
Dim xmlTree As XElement = _   
    <Root Att1="AttributeContent">  
        <Child>  
            <GrandChild>element content</GrandChild>  
        </Child>  
    </Root>  

Dim dnas = From node In xmlTree.DescendantNodes _  
           Select node  

For Each node In dnas  
    If TypeOf node Is XElement Then  
        Console.WriteLine(DirectCast(node, XElement).Name)  
    Else  
        Console.WriteLine(node)  
    End If  
Next  

This example produces the following output:

Child  
GrandChild  
element content  

Remarks

Note that attributes are not considered to be nodes in LINQ to XML, so they will not be part of the collection that is returned by this method.

This method uses deferred execution.

See also

• Descendants
• Elements
• LINQ to XML overview