How to find preceding siblings (LINQ to XML)

This article shows how to use XPathSelectElements along the preceding-sibling axis to find sibling elements that precede a given element, and how to use XNode.ElementsBeforeSelf to find the same elements.

Example: Use two methods to find sibling elements that precede an element

The following example finds the FullAddress element in XML document Sample XML file: Customers and orders, and retrieves the preceding sibling elements in two different ways. It then compares the results and finds them identical.

The XPath expression used is preceding-sibling::*.

XElement co = XElement.Load("CustomersOrders.xml");

XElement add = co.Element("Customers").Element("Customer").Element("FullAddress");

// LINQ to XML query
IEnumerable<XElement> list1 = add.ElementsBeforeSelf();

// XPath expression
IEnumerable<XElement> list2 = add.XPathSelectElements("preceding-sibling::*");

if (list1.Count() == list2.Count() &&
        list1.Intersect(list2).Count() == list1.Count())
    Console.WriteLine("Results are identical");
else
    Console.WriteLine("Results differ");
foreach (XElement el in list2)
    Console.WriteLine(el);

Dim co As XElement = XElement.Load("CustomersOrders.xml")
Dim add As XElement = co.<Customers>.<Customer>. _
        <FullAddress>.FirstOrDefault

' LINQ to XML query
Dim list1 As IEnumerable(Of XElement) = add.ElementsBeforeSelf()

' XPath expression
Dim list2 As IEnumerable(Of XElement) = add.XPathSelectElements("preceding-sibling::*")

If list1.Count() = list2.Count() And _
        list1.Intersect(list2).Count() = list1.Count() Then
    Console.WriteLine("Results are identical")
Else
    Console.WriteLine("Results differ")
End If
For Each el As XElement In list2
    Console.WriteLine(el)
Next

This example produces the following output:

Results are identical
<CompanyName>Great Lakes Food Market</CompanyName>
<ContactName>Howard Snyder</ContactName>
<ContactTitle>Marketing Manager</ContactTitle>
<Phone>(503) 555-7555</Phone>

See also

• LINQ to XML for XPath Users (Visual Basic)