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How to work with dictionaries using LINQ to XML

It's often convenient to convert data structures of various kinds to XML, and then from XML to other data structures. This article shows a conversion of a Dictionary<TKey,TValue> to XML and back.

Example: Create a Dictionary and convert its contents to XML

This first example creates a Dictionary<TKey,TValue>, and then converts it to XML.

This C# version of the example uses a form of functional construction in which a query projects new XElement objects, and the resulting collection is passed as an argument to the constructor of the Root XElement object.

The Visual Basic version uses XML literals and a query in an embedded expression. The query projects new XElement objects which then become the new content for the Root XElement object.

Dictionary<string, string> dict = new Dictionary<string, string>();
dict.Add("Child1", "Value1");
dict.Add("Child2", "Value2");
dict.Add("Child3", "Value3");
dict.Add("Child4", "Value4");
XElement root = new XElement("Root",
    from keyValue in dict
    select new XElement(keyValue.Key, keyValue.Value)
);
Console.WriteLine(root);
Dim dict As Dictionary(Of String, String) = New Dictionary(Of String, String)()
dict.Add("Child1", "Value1")
dict.Add("Child2", "Value2")
dict.Add("Child3", "Value3")
dict.Add("Child4", "Value4")
Dim root As XElement = _
    <Root>
        <%= From keyValue In dict _
            Select New XElement(keyValue.Key, keyValue.Value) %>
    </Root>
Console.WriteLine(root)

This example produces the following output:

<Root>
  <Child1>Value1</Child1>
  <Child2>Value2</Child2>
  <Child3>Value3</Child3>
  <Child4>Value4</Child4>
</Root>

Example: Create a dictionary and load it from XML data

The next example creates a dictionary loads it from XML data.

XElement root = new XElement("Root",
    new XElement("Child1", "Value1"),
    new XElement("Child2", "Value2"),
    new XElement("Child3", "Value3"),
    new XElement("Child4", "Value4")
);

Dictionary<string, string> dict = new Dictionary<string, string>();
foreach (XElement el in root.Elements())
    dict.Add(el.Name.LocalName, el.Value);
foreach (string str in dict.Keys)
    Console.WriteLine("{0}:{1}", str, dict[str]);
Dim root As XElement = _
        <Root>
            <Child1>Value1</Child1>
            <Child2>Value2</Child2>
            <Child3>Value3</Child3>
            <Child4>Value4</Child4>
        </Root>

Dim dict As Dictionary(Of String, String) = New Dictionary(Of String, String)
For Each el As XElement In root.Elements
    dict.Add(el.Name.LocalName, el.Value)
Next
For Each str As String In dict.Keys
    Console.WriteLine("{0}:{1}", str, dict(str))
Next

This example produces the following output:

Child1:Value1
Child2:Value2
Child3:Value3
Child4:Value4

See also