What is the difference between Linq to XML Descendants and Elements

by

Elements finds only those elements that are direct descendents, i.e. immediate children.

Descendants finds children at any level, i.e. children, grand-children, etc…

Here is an example demonstrating the difference:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<foo>
    <bar>Test 1</bar>
    <baz>
        <bar>Test 2</bar>
    </baz>
    <bar>Test 3</bar>
</foo>

Code:

XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("input.xml");
XElement root = doc.Root;

foreach (XElement e in root.Elements("bar"))
{
    Console.WriteLine("Elements : " + e.Value);
}

foreach (XElement e in root.Descendants("bar"))
{
    Console.WriteLine("Descendants : " + e.Value);
}

Result:

Elements : Test 1
Elements : Test 3
Descendants : Test 1
Descendants : Test 2
Descendants : Test 3

If you know that the elements you want are immediate children then you will get better performance if you use Elements instead of Descendants.

More Related Contents:

  1. Query an XDocument for elements by name at any depth
  2. how to use XPath with XDocument?
  3. get line number for XElement here
  4. XmlTextReader vs. XDocument
  5. Finding element in XDocument?
  6. How can I remove empty xmlns attribute from node created by XElement
  7. LINQ to read XML
  8. Generate C# class from XML
  9. How to serialize/deserialize to `Dictionary` from custom XML not using XElement?
  10. How would you compare two XML Documents?
  11. Format a date in XML via XSLT
  12. Escape invalid XML characters in C#
  13. How to deal with XML in C#
  14. How to read attribute value from XmlNode in C#?
  15. XmlSerializer – There was an error reflecting type
  16. Entity Framework with XML Files [closed]
  17. How to serialize/deserialize simple classes to XML and back
  18. Fastest way to add new node to end of an xml?
  19. How to Get XML Node from XDocument
  20. XML Parsing – Read a Simple XML File and Retrieve Values
  21. How to write a comment to an XML file when using the XmlSerializer?
  22. XML file creation using XDocument in C#
  23. Deserializing XML File with multiple element attributes – attributes are not deserializing
  24. How to prevent System.Xml.XmlException: Invalid character in the given encoding
  25. Generating XML file using XSD file
  26. How to print using XDocument
  27. Query XDocument with xmlns attribute (namespace)
  28. XmlSerializer Performance Issue when Specifying XmlRootAttribute
  29. Force XDocument to write to String with UTF-8 encoding
  30. How do I return XML from a Stored Procedure?

Leave a Comment