Basic XML access via C#

Unity Engine
1

First off, I’m aware that there are some other threads right now on a similar topic, but they seem to be a bit more than I need and honestly I just can’t wrap my head around them.
I’d appreciate it if anyone could provide an “explain like I’m 5” explanation of some simple XML access via C#.

Say I’ve got the following XML:

<records>
	<patient name="john" age="25" status="fine" />
	<patient>
		<name>jane</name>
		<age>30</age>
		<status>not fine</status>
	</patient>
</records>

Now, I’ve got 2 sets of similar data here. This is because I’m not sure which is the best, or “proper” way to organize it. But, the goal is the same.
In C#, I’d like to be able to simply pull that data and assign it to a variable in Unity. For example, putting the “age” property into an int or the “status” into a string.

I’ve been reading some of the threads here and its just not “clicking” for me. I’d be grateful if someone could give me a very basic explanation on this.

Edit: I should add that I’d like to access the XML locally, rather than via a web page.

Thanks.

2 
XmlDocument mydoc = new XmlDocument();
mydoc.Load("file.xml");
XmlNodeList nodelist = mydoc.SelectNodes("records/patient");

if (nodelist.Count > 0)
{
	for (int i = 0; i < nodelist.Count; i++)
	{
		XmlNode node = nodelist[i];
		XmlAttributeCollection collection= node.Attributes; // here attreibutes  like age, name, status
	}
}
3

Noooo - Serialization is your friend. Honest! :slight_smile:

using System.Xml.Serialization;

[XmlRoot(ElementName = "records")]
public class Records
{
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "patient")]
    public Patient[] Patients { get; set; }
}

// this assumes the 2nd example where properties
// are child nodes and not attributes
public class Patient
{
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }
    
    [XmlElement(ElementName = "age")]
    public int Age { get; set; }

    [XmlElement(ElementName = "status")]
    public string Status { get; set; }
}

Then to load all your data into a Records object-

Records records;
using (FileStream file = new FileSteam("data.xml", FileMode.Open))
{
    XmlSerializer serial = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Records));
    records = (Records)serial.Deserialize(file);
}

This discards all the XML related junk after it’s loaded and serialized and leaves you with a nice object that you can query and manipulate as much as you like. Also makes saving the data back to a file easier (XmlSerializer comes with a Serialize method that goes the other way).

using System.Linq;

// get the first record of a guy named 'john'
var john = records.Patients.First(p => p.Name == "john");

// get all patients that are 25 or older
var oldGuys = records.Patients.Select(p => p.Age >= 25);

Double edit - I see you’re in Philadelphia - me too! (close anyway)