XNode.PreviousNode Property

Definition

Namespace:

System.Xml.Linq

Assembly:

System.Xml.XDocument.dll

Source:

XNode.cs

Gets the previous sibling node of this node.

public:
 property System::Xml::Linq::XNode ^ PreviousNode { System::Xml::Linq::XNode ^ get(); };

public System.Xml.Linq.XNode? PreviousNode { get; }

member this.PreviousNode : System.Xml.Linq.XNode

Public ReadOnly Property PreviousNode As XNode

Property Value

XNode

The XNode that contains the previous sibling node.

Examples

The following example uses this property to loop through nodes.

XElement xmlTree = new XElement("Root",  
    new XElement("Child1", 1),  
    new XText("Some Text"),  
    new XElement("Child2",  
        2,  
        new XElement("GrandChild", "GrandChild Content")  
    ),  
    new XComment("a comment"),  
    new XElement("Child3")  
);  
XNode node = xmlTree.Element("Child2");  
do {  
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();  
    sb.Append(String.Format("NodeType: {0}", node.NodeType.ToString().PadRight(10)));  
    switch (node.NodeType)  
    {  
        case XmlNodeType.Text:  
            sb.Append((node as XText).Value);  
            break;  
        case XmlNodeType.Element:  
            sb.Append((node as XElement).Name);  
            break;  
        case XmlNodeType.Comment:  
            sb.Append((node as XComment).Value);  
            break;  
    }  
    Console.WriteLine(sb.ToString());  
}  
while ((node = node.PreviousNode) != null);  

Dim xmlTree As XElement = _  
    <Root>  
        <Child1>1</Child1>Some Text<Child2>2  
            <GrandChild>GrandChild Content</GrandChild>  
        </Child2>  
        <!--a comment-->  
        <Child3>3</Child3>  
    </Root>  

Dim node As XNode = xmlTree.Element("Child2")  
Do  
    Dim sb As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder()  
    sb.Append(String.Format("NodeType: {0}", node.NodeType.ToString().PadRight(10)))  
    Select Case node.NodeType  
        Case XmlNodeType.Text  
            sb.Append(DirectCast(node, XText).Value)  
        Case XmlNodeType.Element  
            sb.Append(DirectCast(node, XElement).Name)  
        Case XmlNodeType.Comment  
            sb.Append(DirectCast(node, XComment).Value)  
    End Select  
    Console.WriteLine(sb.ToString())  

    node = node.PreviousNode  
Loop While (Not (node Is Nothing))  

This example produces the following output:

NodeType: Element   Child2  
NodeType: Text      Some Text  
NodeType: Element   Child1  

Remarks

If this XNode does not have a parent, or if there is no previous node, this property returns null.

The XContainer stores its child nodes as a singly-linked list of XNode objects. This means that the PreviousNode property must traverse the list of direct child nodes under the parent container. Therefore, using this property might affect your performance.

See also

• LINQ to XML overview