XML Descendant Axis Property (Visual Basic)

object

Required. An XElement object, an XDocument object, a collection of XElement objects, or a collection of XDocument objects.

...<

Required. Denotes the start of a descendant axis property.

descendant

Required. Name of the descendant nodes to access, of the form [prefix:]name.

Part	Description
prefix	Optional. XML namespace prefix for the descendant node. Must be a global XML namespace that is defined by using an Imports statement.
name	Required. Local name of the descendant node. See Names of Declared XML Elements and Attributes (Visual Basic).

>

Required. Denotes the end of a descendant axis property.

A collection of XElement objects.

You can use an XML descendant axis property to access descendant nodes by name from an XElement or XDocument object, or from a collection of XElement or XDocument objects. Use the XML Value property to access the value of the first descendant node in the returned collection. For more information, see XML Value Property (Visual Basic).

The Visual Basic compiler converts descendant axis properties into calls to the Descendants method.

XML Namespaces

The following example shows how to access the value of the first descendant node named name and the values of all descendant nodes named phone from the contacts object.

Dim contacts As XElement = 
    <contacts>
        <contact>
            <name>Patrick Hines</name>
            <phone type="home">206-555-0144</phone>
            <phone type="work">425-555-0145</phone>
        </contact>
    </contacts>

Console.WriteLine("Name: " & contacts...<name>.Value)

Dim homePhone = From phone In contacts...<phone> 
                Select phone.Value

Console.WriteLine("Home Phone = {0}", homePhone(0))

This code displays the following text:

Name: Patrick Hines

Home Phone = 206-555-0144

The following example declares ns as an XML namespace prefix. It then uses the prefix of the namespace to create an XML literal and access the value of the first child node with the qualified name ns:name.

Imports <xmlns:ns = "http://SomeNamespace"> 

Class TestClass2

    Shared Sub TestPrefix()
        Dim contacts = 
            <ns:contacts>
                <ns:contact>
                    <ns:name>Patrick Hines</ns:name>
                </ns:contact>
            </ns:contacts>

        Console.WriteLine("Name: " & contacts...<ns:name>.Value)
    End Sub 

End Class

This code displays the following text:

Name: Patrick Hines

Reference

Concepts

Other Resources