How to find a single descendant using the Descendants method (LINQ to XML)
You can use the Descendants axis method to find a single uniquely-named descendant element. This technique is especially useful when you want to find a particular descendant with a specific name, and may be faster and easier to use than navigating the XML tree.
Example: Use XContainer.Descendants to find a single uniquely-named descendant element
This example uses the First standard query operator.
XElement root = XElement.Parse(@"<Root>
<Child1>
<GrandChild1>GC1 Value</GrandChild1>
</Child1>
<Child2>
<GrandChild2>GC2 Value</GrandChild2>
</Child2>
<Child3>
<GrandChild3>GC3 Value</GrandChild3>
</Child3>
<Child4>
<GrandChild4>GC4 Value</GrandChild4>
</Child4>
</Root>");
string grandChild3 = (string)
(from el in root.Descendants("GrandChild3")
select el).First();
Console.WriteLine(grandChild3);
Dim root As XElement = _
<Root>
<Child1>
<GrandChild1>GC1 Value</GrandChild1>
</Child1>
<Child2>
<GrandChild2>GC2 Value</GrandChild2>
</Child2>
<Child3>
<GrandChild3>GC3 Value</GrandChild3>
</Child3>
<Child4>
<GrandChild4>GC4 Value</GrandChild4>
</Child4>
</Root>
Dim grandChild3 As String = _
(From el In root...<GrandChild3> _
Select el).First()
Console.WriteLine(grandChild3)
This example produces the following output:
GC3 Value
Example: Find when the XML is in a namespace
The following example does the same as the previous one, but for XML that's in a namespace. For more information, see Namespaces overview.
XElement root = XElement.Parse(@"<aw:Root xmlns:aw='http://www.adventure-works.com'>
<aw:Child1>
<aw:GrandChild1>GC1 Value</aw:GrandChild1>
</aw:Child1>
<aw:Child2>
<aw:GrandChild2>GC2 Value</aw:GrandChild2>
</aw:Child2>
<aw:Child3>
<aw:GrandChild3>GC3 Value</aw:GrandChild3>
</aw:Child3>
<aw:Child4>
<aw:GrandChild4>GC4 Value</aw:GrandChild4>
</aw:Child4>
</aw:Root>");
XNamespace aw = "http://www.adventure-works.com";
string grandChild3 = (string)
(from el in root.Descendants(aw + "GrandChild3")
select el).First();
Console.WriteLine(grandChild3);
Imports <xmlns:aw='http://www.adventure-works.com'>
Module Module1
Sub Main()
Dim root As XElement = _
<aw:Root>
<aw:Child1>
<aw:GrandChild1>GC1 Value</aw:GrandChild1>
</aw:Child1>
<aw:Child2>
<aw:GrandChild2>GC2 Value</aw:GrandChild2>
</aw:Child2>
<aw:Child3>
<aw:GrandChild3>GC3 Value</aw:GrandChild3>
</aw:Child3>
<aw:Child4>
<aw:GrandChild4>GC4 Value</aw:GrandChild4>
</aw:Child4>
</aw:Root>
Dim grandChild3 As String = _
(From el In root...<aw:GrandChild3> _
Select el).First()
Console.WriteLine(grandChild3)
End Sub
End Module
This example produces the following output:
GC3 Value
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