Fundamentals of Attributes

Introduction

The differences between an element and an attribute are:

• An attribute is considered a characteristic of an element. This means that an attribute belongs to an element
• An element can have one or more attributes. An attribute cannot have an element
• An attribute must be created in the start-tag of an element
• An element cannot be defined as part of an attribute. That is, an attribute is subject to an element and an attribute doesn't own the attribute

1. Create a new Console Application named CountriesStatistics1
2. To save the file, on the Standard toolbar, click the Save All button
3. Accept all defaults and click Save
4. In the Solution Explorer, right-click CountriesStatistics1 -> Add -> New Item...
5. In the Templates list, click XML File
6. Set the Name to continents and click Add
7. Change the file as follows:
    

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <World> </World>

8. To save the file, on the main menu, click File -> Save continents.xml As...
9. Access the main folder of the current project and, inside of it, open a sub-folder of the same name (you should be in that folder already). In the sub-folder of the same name, open the bin sub-folder followed by the Release sub-folder. Click Save

An attribute must be created inside the start-tag of an element. To manually create an attribute, type the left angle bracket of the element, followed by the name of the element, an empty space, and the name of the attribute. The name follows the same rules we defined for names in XML.

An attribute should have a value that can be used to distinguish it. To specify the name of an attribute, assign a value as a string to its name. Imagine you have an ISBN element as a child of a Video element as follows:

<Video>
	<ISBN>0-7888-1623-3</ISBN>
</Video>

In this case, since ISBN is simply a child of the Video element, you can change the ISBN element to become an attribute of the Video element as follows:

<Video ISBN="0-7888-1623-3">

Now, ISBN is an attribute of the Video element.

In the .NET Framework, an attribute is represented by the XmlAttribute class. Like all nodes, this class is based on the XmlNode class. The name of an attribute is represented by its (read-only) Name property. The value of an attribute is represented by its Value property . Besides Value, you can also use XmlAttribute.InnerText or XmlAttribute.InnerXml to access the text of an attribute.

An element can have 0, one, or more attributes. The attributes of an element are stored in the Attributes property of an XmlElement object. The XmlElement.Attributes property is based on a class called XmlAttributeCollection. The XmlAttributeCollection class is based on the XmlNamedNodeMap class.

Before performing an attribute-related operation on an element, to find out whether the element has any attribute, you can check the value of the Boolean HasAttributes property of its XmlElement element. If this property produces a true value, then the element has at least one attribute; otherwise, the element doesn't have any.

While a certain element may have an attribute, a sibling element with the same name may not have an attribute or may have a completely different type of attribute. Here is an XML file with attributes in some elements:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Videos>
	<Video ISBN="0-7888-1623-3">
		<Title Screenplay="Marty Kaplan">The Distinguished Gentleman</Title>
		<Director>Jonathan Lynn</Director>
		<Actors>
		</Actors>
		<Length>112 Minutes</Length>
		<Format>DVD</Format>
		<Rating>R</Rating>
	</Video>
	<Video>
		<Title WrittenBy="Charlie Peter">Her Alibi</Title>
		<Director>Bruce Beresford</Director>
		<Length>94 Mins</Length>
		<Format>DVD</Format>
		<Rating>PG-13</Rating>
	</Video>
</Videos>

Remember that you can include white spaces to make your code easy to read. This means that you can type an attribute on the next line of its element's name. In the Lesson 36, we saw that every element must be closed. We saw that we could close an element with an end-tag as follows:

<Video><ISBN>0-7888-1623-3</ISBN></Video>

We also saw that we could close an element locally as follows: <Video />. If you create an attribute in an empty element, you can also close it by typing the indicative forward slash before the right angle bracket and after an empty space. Here is an example:

<Video ISBN="0-7888-1623-3" />

1. Change the file continents.xml file as follows:
    

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <World> <Continent Name="Africa"></Continent> <Continent Name="Europe"></Continent> <Continent Name="Asia"></Continent> <Continent Name="South America"></Continent> </World>

2. Save the file

As mentioned already, an attribute primarily belongs to an element. This means that, when creating an attribute, you must specify what element it would belong to. To support the attributes of an element, the XmlElement class is equipped with the SetAttribute() method which is overloaded in two versions. The first version of this method uses the following syntax:

public virtual void SetAttribute(string name, string value);

The first argument is the name of the new attribute and the second argument will be its text. Before adding an attribute, you should first identify its parent element. Here is an example that adds an attribute to the root element:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;

namespace VideoCollection
{
    public static class Exercise
    {
        private static void CreateAttribute()
	{
            string strFilename = "Videos.xml";
			XmlDocument docXML = new XmlDocument();

            if (File.Exists(strFilename))
            {
                // Open the XML file
                docXML.Load(strFilename);

                // Create an attribute and add it to the root element
                docXML.DocumentElement.SetAttribute("FileDesc",
                                   "Personal Video Collection");
                docXML.Save("Videos.xml");
            }
	}

        static int Main(string[] args)
        {
            CreateAttribute();
            return 0;
        }
    }
}

From the above Videos.xml file, this code would result in:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Videos FileDesc="Personal Video Collection">
  <Video ISBN="0-7888-1623-3">
    <Title Screenplay="Marty Kaplan">The Distinguished Gentleman</Title>
    <Director>Jonathan Lynn</Director>
    <Actors>
    </Actors>
    <Length>112 Minutes</Length>
    <Format>DVD</Format>
    <Rating>R</Rating>
  </Video>
  <Video>
    <Title WrittenBy="Charlie Peter">Her Alibi</Title>
    <Director>Bruce Beresford</Director>
    <Length>94 Mins</Length>
    <Format>DVD</Format>
    <Rating>PG-13</Rating>
  </Video>
</Videos>

To support attribute addition, the XmlDocument class is equipped with the CreateAttribute() method, which is overloaded in three versions. The first version of this method has the following syntax:

public XmlAttribute CreateAttribute(string name);

This method expects the name of the attribute as argument. If it succeeds, this method produces an XmlAttribute object. To add the new attribute to an element, you can call the XmlElement.SetAttributeNote() method. This method is overloaded in two versions. One of the versions uses the following syntax:

public virtual XmlAttribute SetAttributeNode(XmlAttribute newAttr);

This method expects an XmlAttribute object. Here is an example that looks for a particular video in a collection and adds an ISBN attribute to it:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;

namespace VideoCollection
{
    public static class Exercise
    {
        private static void CreateAttribute()
		{
            string strFilename = "Videos.xml";
			XmlDocument docXML = new XmlDocument();

            if (File.Exists(strFilename))
            {
                // Open the XML file
                docXML.Load(strFilename);

                // Create a new attribute
                XmlAttribute atrXML = docXML.CreateAttribute("ISBN");
                atrXML.Value = "0-7907-3900-3";

                // Get a list of elements whose names are Video
                XmlNodeList nodVideos = docXML.GetElementsByTagName("Video");
                // Since we will look for a specific video, get the list of all titles
                XmlNodeList nodTitles = docXML.GetElementsByTagName("Title");

                // Visit each title
                for (int i = 0; i < nodTitles.Count; i++)
                {
                    // Look for a video whose title is "Her Alibi"
                    if (nodTitles[i].InnerText.Equals("Her Alibi"))
                    {
                        // Once you find that video, add the new attribute to it
                        ((XmlElement)(nodVideos[i])).SetAttributeNode(atrXML);
                    }
                }

                docXML.Save("Videos.xml");
            }
	}

        static int Main(string[] args)
        {
            CreateAttribute();
            return 0;
        }
    }
}

From the above Videos.xml file, this code would result in:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Videos FileDesc="Personal Video Collection">
  <Video ISBN="0-7888-1623-3">
    <Title Screenplay="Marty Kaplan">The Distinguished Gentleman</Title>
    <Director>Jonathan Lynn</Director>
    <Actors>
    </Actors>
    <Length>112 Minutes</Length>
    <Format>DVD</Format>
    <Rating>R</Rating>
  </Video>
  <Video ISBN="0-7907-3900-3">
    <Title WrittenBy="Charlie Peter">Her Alibi</Title>
    <Director>Bruce Beresford</Director>
    <Length>94 Mins</Length>
    <Format>DVD</Format>
    <Rating>PG-13</Rating>
  </Video>
</Videos>

1. Create a new function as follows:
    

   using System; using System.IO; using System.Xml; namespace CountriesStatistics1 { public static class Program { private static void CreateContinent() { string strFilename = "continents.xml"; XmlDocument xmlDocContinents = new XmlDocument(); FileStream fsStatistics = null; if (File.Exists(strFilename)) { string strContinent = null; try { fsStatistics = new FileStream(strFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); // Open the XML file xmlDocContinents.Load(fsStatistics); } finally { fsStatistics.Close(); } // Request the name of a continent from the user Console.Write("Enter the name of a continent: "); strContinent = Console.ReadLine(); // Create an element that the new attribute will be added to XmlElement xmlNewContinent = xmlDocContinents.CreateElement("Continent"); // Create a Continent element and set its value to // that of the new continent xmlNewContinent.SetAttribute("Name", strContinent); // Add the element and its attribute to the document xmlDocContinents.DocumentElement.AppendChild(xmlNewContinent); // Save the XML file xmlDocContinents.Save("continents.xml"); } } static int Main(string[] args) { CreateContinent(); return 0; } } }

2. Execute the application and create a continent. Here is an example:
    

   Enter the name of a continent: North America Press any key to continue . . .

3. Close the DOS window
    

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <World> <Continent Name="Africa"> </Continent> <Continent Name="Europe"> </Continent> <Continent Name="Asia"> </Continent> <Continent Name="South America"> </Continent> <Continent Name="North America" /> </World>

Once an attribute has been created, to identify the element it belongs to, you can access its XmlAttribute.OwnerElement property. This property produces an XmlElement value.

If an element has an attribute you don't want or that you don't need anymore, you can delete that attribute. You have various options, two are available through the XmlElement class.

The attributes of an XmlElement object are considered stored in an indexed list with the most left attribute at index 0, the second from left at index 1, and so on. Based on this, to remove an attribute by locating it based on its index, you can call the XmlElement.RemoveAt() method. Its syntax is:

public virtual XmlNode RemoveAttributeAt(int i);

When calling this method, if an attribute exists at position i, it will be deleted and the method would return it. If there is no attribute at that index, the method doesn't do anything and it returns 0.

Using the XmlElement.RemoveAt() method to delete an attribute can be uncertain because you would not know whether there is an attribute at the specified position. An alternative is to specify the name of the attribute you want to delete. To support this, the XmlElement class is equipped with the RemoveAttribute() method, which is overloaded with two versions. One of the versions of this method uses the following syntax:

public virtual void RemoveAttribute(string name);

This method expects as argument the name of the attribute to remove.

Another technique you can use consists of defining an XmlAttribute object and submitting to its XmlElement parent to delete. To do this, you can call the RemoveAttributeNode() method of the XmlElement object. Its syntax is:

public virtual XmlAttribute RemoveAttributeNode(XmlAttribute oldAttr);

When calling this method, pass the attribute object as argument. If the attribute exists, it would be removed and the method would return the deleted attribute. If the attribute doesn't exist, nothing would happen.

So far, we have used only one attribute per element. Fortunately, you can create as many attributes as you judge necessary in an element. To do this, type the name of each attribute, assign it a double-quoted string and separate the attribute from the next with an empty space. Here is an example of an element with different attributes:

<Video ISBN="0-7888-1623-3" ScreenRatio="Standard" SoundtrackAvailable="True" />

As mentioned already and as you should always remember, attributes belong to an element. To support them, the attributes of an element are stored in the Attributes property of the XmlElement class. The XmlElement.Attributes property is based on a class called XmlAttributeCollection. The XmlAttributeCollection class is based on the XmlNamedNodeMap class. This class lays a foundation to access attributes using their names or index in the collection.

To know the number of attributes in an element, you can use the XmlNamedNodeMap.Count property.

1. Create a new Console Application named CountriesStatistics2
2. To save the project, on the Standard toolbar, click the Save All button
3. Accept all defaults and click Save
4. In the Solution Explorer, right-click CountriesStatistics2 -> Add -> New Item...
5. In the Templates list, make sure XML File is selected.
   Set the Name to continents and click Add
6. Change the file as follows:
    

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <World Area="510,072,000,000" Population="6,379,157,361"> <Continent Name="Africa" Area="30,065,000" Population="807,419,000"> <Country CountryName="Burundi" Area="27,830" Population="6,231,221" Capital="Bujumbura" Code="bi" /> </Continent> <Continent Name="Europe" Area="9,938,000" Population="730,916,000"> <Country CountryName="Italy" Area="301,230" Population="58,057,477" Capital="Rome" Code="it" /> </Continent> </World>

7. To save the file, on the main menu, click File -> Save continents.xml As...
8. Access the main folder of the current project and, inside of it, open a sub-folder of the same name (you should be in that folder already). In the sub-folder of the same name, open the bin sub-folder followed by the Release sub-folder. Click Save

To access an attribute by its position in the collection, you can use the XmlNamedNodeMap.Item() method.

The XmlAttributeCollection class is equipped with an ItemOf indexed property. This property is overloaded in three versions. The first version has the following syntax:

public virtual XmlAttribute this[int i] {get;}

This property allows you to access an attribute by considering that the attributes are stored in an array. The first or most left attribute has an index of 0; the second attribute from left (of course without counting the name of the element) has an index of 1, and so on.

It can be difficult and sometimes unpredictable, in some scenarios, to access an attribute by its index because you must know exactly where each attribute is positioned. Consider the following version of our Videos.xml XML file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Videos FileDesc="Personal Video Collection">
    <Video ISBN="0-7888-1623-3"
	   ScreenRatio="Standard"
	   SoundtrackAvailable="True">
        <Title StoryBy="Marty Kaplan and Jonathan Reynold"
	       Screenplay="Marty Kaplan">The Distinguished Gentleman</Title>
        <Director>Jonathan Lynn</Director>
        <Actors></Actors>
        <Length>112 Minutes</Length>
        <Format>DVD</Format>
        <Rating>R</Rating>
    </Video>
    <Video ISBN="0-7907-3900-3">
        <Title Screenplay="Charlie Peter">Her Alibi</Title>
        <Director>Bruce Beresford</Director>
        <Length>94 Mins</Length>
        <Format>DVD</Format>
        <Rating>PG-13</Rating>
    </Video>
</Videos>

In the first video, the name of the screenplay writer is stored at index 1. In the second video, the name of the screenplay writer is stored at index 0. In this case, it may not be a good item to use the index to locate an attribute. Fortunately, the second version of the overloaded XmlAttributeCollection.ItemOf[] property has the following syntax:

public virtual XmlAttribute this[string name] {get;}

With this version, you can explicitly specify the name of the attribute that you want.

1. To display the continents, change the code as follows:
    

   using System; using System.IO; using System.Xml; namespace CountriesStatistics2 { public static class Program { private static void ShowContinents() { string strFilename = "continents.xml"; XmlDocument xmlWorldStats = new XmlDocument(); FileStream fsWorldStats = null; if (File.Exists(strFilename)) { string strContinent = null; try { fsWorldStats = new FileStream(strFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); // Open the XML file xmlWorldStats.Load(fsWorldStats); } finally { fsWorldStats.Close(); } // Get a list of elements whose names are Continent XmlNodeList lstContinents = xmlWorldStats.GetElementsByTagName("Continent"); // Show the statistics on the continents Console.WriteLine(" =-= Continents =-="); Console.WriteLine("Name\tArea\t\tPopulation"); foreach(XmlNode attr in lstContinents) { Console.WriteLine("{0}\t{1}\t{2}", attr.Attributes["Name"].InnerText, attr.Attributes["Area"].InnerText, attr.Attributes["Population"].InnerText); } } } public static int Main(string[] args) { ShowContinents(); return 0; } } }

2. Execute the application to see the result:
    

   =-= Continents =-= Name Area Population Africa 30,065,000 807,419,000 Europe 9,938,000 730,916,000

3. Close the DOS window

Whether using its index or name, after accessing an attribute, you can manipulate it as you see fit. For example, you can change or delete it using the same techniques we saw to perform on an individual attribute.

As mentioned already, the attributes are stored as a list. Because you have complete access to this list and the positions of its attributes, when creating or adding a new attribute, you can specify the position the new attribute should have in the collection. To create an attribute as the first in an element, you can call the XmlAttributeCollection.Prepend() method. Its syntax is:

public virtual XmlAttribute Prepend(XmlAttribute node);

Another technique you can use consists of locating an attribute first. Once you have one, to create a new attribute before it, you can call the XmlAttributeCollection.InsertBefore() method. Its syntax is:

public virtual XmlAttribute InsertBefore(XmlAttribute newNode,
					 XmlAttribute refNode);

To add a new attribute after the current one, you can call the XmlAttributeCollection.InsertAfter() method. Its syntax is:

public virtual XmlAttribute InsertAfter(XmlAttribute newNode,
					XmlAttribute refNode);

To add an attribute at the end of the list of attributes of an element, you can call the XmlAttributeCollection.Append() method. Its syntax is:

public virtual XmlAttribute Append(XmlAttribute node);

1. To allow the user to create a new continent, change the program as follows:
    

   using System; using System.IO; using System.Xml; namespace CountriesStatistics2 { public static class Program { private static void ShowContinents() { string strFilename = "continents.xml"; XmlDocument xmlWorldStats = new XmlDocument(); FileStream fsWorldStats = null; if (File.Exists(strFilename)) { try { fsWorldStats = new FileStream(strFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); // Open the XML file xmlWorldStats.Load(fsWorldStats); } finally { fsWorldStats.Close(); } // Get a list of elements whose names are Continent XmlNodeList lstContinents = xmlWorldStats.GetElementsByTagName("Continent"); // Show the statistics on the continents Console.WriteLine("\n==================================="); Console.WriteLine(" =-= Continents =-="); Console.WriteLine("==================================="); Console.WriteLine("Name\tArea\t\tPopulation"); Console.WriteLine("==================================="); foreach (XmlNode attr in lstContinents) { Console.WriteLine("{0}\t{1}\t{2}", attr.Attributes["Name"].InnerText, attr.Attributes["Area"].InnerText, attr.Attributes["Population"].InnerText); Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------"); } } } private static void CreateNewContinent() { string strContinent = null; string strArea = null; string strPopulation = null; // Open the XML file XmlDocument xmlDocContinents = new XmlDocument(); string strFilename = "continents.xml"; FileStream fsContinents = null; if (File.Exists(strFilename)) { try { fsContinents = new FileStream(strFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); // Open the XML file xmlDocContinents.Load(fsContinents); } finally { fsContinents.Close(); } } // Create a Continent element that the new attribute will be added to XmlElement xmlNewContinent = xmlDocContinents.CreateElement("Continent"); // Present the current list of continents to the user ShowContinents(); // Request the name of a continent from the user Console.Write("Enter a new continent: "); strContinent = Console.ReadLine(); // Create a Name attribute using the continent that the user entered xmlNewContinent.SetAttribute("Name", strContinent); // Request the continent's area from the user Console.Write("Enter the area of the continent: "); strArea = Console.ReadLine(); // Create the Area attribute xmlNewContinent.SetAttribute("Area", strArea); // Request the population of the continent from the user Console.Write("Enter the population of the continent: "); strPopulation = Console.ReadLine(); // Create the Population attribute xmlNewContinent.SetAttribute("Population", strPopulation); // Add the element and its attribute to the document xmlDocContinents.DocumentElement.AppendChild(xmlNewContinent); // Save the XML file xmlDocContinents.Save(strFilename); ShowContinents(); } public static int Main(string[] args) { int choice = 0; Console.WriteLine(" =-= Main Menu =-="); Console.WriteLine("0 - Quit"); Console.WriteLine("1 - Display Continents"); Console.WriteLine("2 - Create New Continent"); Console.Write("Your Choice? "); choice = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine()); switch (choice) { case 1: ShowContinents(); break; case 2: CreateNewContinent(); break; } Console.WriteLine(); return 0; } } }

2. Execute the application to test it. Here is an example:
    

   =-= Main Menu =-= 0 - Quit 1 - Display Continents 2 - Create New Continent Your Choice? 2 =================================== =-= Continents =-= =================================== Name Area Population =================================== Africa 30,065,000 807,419,000 ----------------------------------- Europe 9,938,000 730,916,000 ----------------------------------- Enter a new continent: North America Enter the area of the continent: 24490000 Enter the population of the continent: 514600000 =================================== =-= Continents =-= =================================== Name Area Population =================================== Africa 30,065,000 807,419,000 ----------------------------------- Europe 9,938,000 730,916,000 ----------------------------------- North America 24490000 514600000 ----------------------------------- Press any key to continue . . .

3. Close the DOS window
    

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <World Area="510,072,000,000" Population="6,379,157,361"> <Continent Name="Africa" Area="30,065,000" Population="807,419,000"> <Country CountryName="Burundi" Area="27,830" Population="6,231,221" Capital="Bujumbura" Code="bi" /> </Continent> <Continent Name="Europe" Area="9,938,000" Population="730,916,000"> <Country CountryName="Italy" Area="301,230" Population="58,057,477" Capital="Rome" Code="it" /> </Continent> <Continent Name="North America" Area="24490000" Population="514600000" /> </World>

4. To allow the user to create a new country, change the file as follows:
    

   using System; using System.IO; using System.Xml; namespace CountriesStatistics2 { public static class Program { private static void ShowContinents() { string strFilename = "continents.xml"; XmlDocument xmlWorldStats = new XmlDocument(); FileStream fsWorldStats = null; if (File.Exists(strFilename)) { try { fsWorldStats = new FileStream(strFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); // Open the XML file xmlWorldStats.Load(fsWorldStats); } finally { fsWorldStats.Close(); } // Get a list of elements whose names are Continent XmlNodeList lstContinents = xmlWorldStats.GetElementsByTagName("Continent"); // Show the statistics on the continents Console.WriteLine("\n==================================="); Console.WriteLine(" =-= Continents =-="); Console.WriteLine("==================================="); Console.WriteLine("Name\tArea\t\tPopulation"); Console.WriteLine("==================================="); foreach (XmlNode attr in lstContinents) { Console.WriteLine("{0}\t{1}\t{2}", attr.Attributes["Name"].InnerText, attr.Attributes["Area"].InnerText, attr.Attributes["Population"].InnerText); Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------"); } } } private static void CreateNewContinent() { string strContinent = null; string strArea = null; string strPopulation = null; // Open the XML file XmlDocument xmlDocContinents = new XmlDocument(); string strFilename = "continents.xml"; FileStream fsContinents = null; if (File.Exists(strFilename)) { try { fsContinents = new FileStream(strFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); // Open the XML file xmlDocContinents.Load(fsContinents); } finally { fsContinents.Close(); } } // Create a Continent element that the new attribute will be added to XmlElement xmlNewContinent = xmlDocContinents.CreateElement("Continent"); // Present the current list of continents to the user ShowContinents(); // Request the name of a continent from the user Console.Write("Enter a new continent: "); strContinent = Console.ReadLine(); // Create a Name attribute using the continent that the user entered xmlNewContinent.SetAttribute("Name", strContinent); // Request the continent's area from the user Console.Write("Enter the area of the continent: "); strArea = Console.ReadLine(); // Create the Area attribute xmlNewContinent.SetAttribute("Area", strArea); // Request the population of the continent from the user Console.Write("Enter the population of the continent: "); strPopulation = Console.ReadLine(); // Create the Population attribute xmlNewContinent.SetAttribute("Population", strPopulation); // Add the element and its attribute to the document xmlDocContinents.DocumentElement.AppendChild(xmlNewContinent); // Save the XML file xmlDocContinents.Save(strFilename); ShowContinents(); } private static void AddCountry() { string strContinent = null; string strCountry = null; string strArea = null; string strPopulation = null; string strCapital = null; string strCode = null; string strFilename = "continents.xml"; // Open the XML file XmlDocument xmlDocContinents = new XmlDocument(); FileStream fsContinents = null; if (File.Exists(strFilename)) { try { fsContinents = new FileStream(strFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); // Open the XML file xmlDocContinents.Load(fsContinents); } finally { fsContinents.Close(); } } // Display the list of continents to the user Console.WriteLine("Here is a list of the created continents"); ShowContinents(); // Request a continent from the user Console.Write("Enter the desired continent: "); strContinent = Console.ReadLine(); // Get a list of elements whose names are Continent XmlNodeList lstContinents = xmlDocContinents.GetElementsByTagName("Continent"); // Visit each Continent element for (int i = 0; i < lstContinents.Count; i++) { // Get a list of the attributes of the current element XmlAttributeCollection curAttributes = lstContinents[i].Attributes; // Check each attribute, looking for // the continent that the user entered for (int j = 0; j < curAttributes.Count; j++) { // Check if the current continent // is the same that the user selected if (curAttributes["Name"].InnerText == strContinent) { // Once you find one, get its XmlElement reference XmlElement elmNewCountry = xmlDocContinents.CreateElement("Country"); // Request the name of a country from the user Console.Write("Enter the name of the country: "); strCountry = Console.ReadLine(); // Create the country specified by the user elmNewCountry.SetAttribute("CountryName", strCountry); // Request the area of the country from the user Console.Write("Enter the area of the country: "); strArea = Console.ReadLine(); // Create the Area specified by the user elmNewCountry.SetAttribute("Area", strArea); // Request the population of the country from the user Console.Write("Enter the population of the country: "); strPopulation = Console.ReadLine(); // Create the Population attribute elmNewCountry.SetAttribute("Population", strPopulation); // Request the Capital of the country from the user Console.Write("Enter the capital of the country: "); strCapital = Console.ReadLine(); // Create the Capital attribute elmNewCountry.SetAttribute("Capital", strCapital); // Request the Internet Code of the country from the user Console.Write("Enter the Internet Code of the country: "); strCode = Console.ReadLine(); // Create the Internet Code attribute elmNewCountry.SetAttribute("Code", strCode); // Add the element (and its attribute) as // a child of the current Continent lstContinents[i].AppendChild(elmNewCountry); // Save the XML file xmlDocContinents.Save("Countries.xml"); break; } } } } public static int Main(string[] args) { int choice = 0; do { Console.WriteLine(" =-= Main Menu =-="); Console.WriteLine("1 - Display Continents"); Console.WriteLine("2 - Create New Continent"); Console.WriteLine("3 - Create New Country"); Console.WriteLine("0 - Quit"); Console.Write("Your Choice? "); choice = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine()); switch (choice) { case 1: ShowContinents(); break; case 2: CreateNewContinent(); break; case 3: AddCountry(); break; default: break; } } while ((choice == 1) || (choice == 2) || (choice == 3)); Console.WriteLine(); return 0; } } }

5. Execute the application to test it. Here is an example:
    

   =-= Main Menu =-= 1 - Display Continents 2 - Create New Continent 3 - Create New Country 0 - Quit Your Choice? 2 =================================== =-= Continents =-= =================================== Name Area Population =================================== Africa 30,065,000 807,419,000 ----------------------------------- Europe 9,938,000 730,916,000 ----------------------------------- North America 24490000 514600000 ----------------------------------- Enter a new continent: Asia Enter the area of the continent: 43810582 Enter the population of the continent: 3902404193 =================================== =-= Continents =-= =================================== Name Area Population =================================== Africa 30,065,000 807,419,000 ----------------------------------- Europe 9,938,000 730,916,000 ----------------------------------- North America 24490000 514600000 ----------------------------------- Asia 43810582 3902404193 ----------------------------------- =-= Main Menu =-= 1 - Display Continents 2 - Create New Continent 3 - Create New Country 0 - Quit Your Choice? 3 Here is a list of the created continents =================================== =-= Continents =-= =================================== Name Area Population =================================== Africa 30,065,000 807,419,000 ----------------------------------- Europe 9,938,000 730,916,000 ----------------------------------- North America 24490000 514600000 ----------------------------------- Asia 43810582 3902404193 ----------------------------------- Enter the desired continent: Europe Enter the name of the country: Italy Enter the area of the country: 301230 Enter the population of the country: 58751711 Enter the capital of the country: Rome Enter the Internet code of the country: it =-= Main Menu =-= 1 - Display Continents 2 - Create New Continent 3 - Create New Country 0 - Quit Your Choice? 0 Press any key to continue . . .

6. Close the DOS window
    

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <World Area="510,072,000,000" Population="6,379,157,361"> <Continent Name="Africa" Area="30,065,000" Population="807,419,000"> <Country CountryName="Burundi" Area="27,830" Population="6,231,221" Capital="Bujumbura" Code="bi" /> </Continent> <Continent Name="Europe" Area="9,938,000" Population="730,916,000"> <Country CountryName="Italy" Area="301,230" Population="58,057,477" Capital="Rome" Code="it" /> </Continent> <Continent Name="North America" Area="24490000" Population="514600000" /> <Continent Name="Asia" Area="43810582" Population="3902404193" /> </World>

Using the list of attributes of an element, you can delete one or all attributes of an element. Since the attributes are stored in a collection, you can locate the undesired attribute by its index and then delete it. To do this, you can call the XmlAttributeCollection.RemoveAt() method. Its syntax is:

public virtual XmlAttribute RemoveAt(int i);

This method expects the index of the attribute that needs to be removed. As mentioned for the XmlAttributeCollection.ItemOf indexed property, to efficiently use this RemoveAt() method, you should know the exact index of the attribute, otherwise, you may access and therefore delete the wrong attribute. An alternative is to explicitly identify the attribute you want to delete. To do this, you can call the XmlAttributeCollection.Remove() method. Its syntax is:

public virtual XmlAttribute Remove(XmlAttribute node);

This method takes as attribute the XmlAttribute identification of the attribute you want to remove.

To delete all attributes of an element, you can call the XmlAttributeCollection.RemoveAll() method. Its syntax is:

public virtual void RemoveAll();

This method would simply remove all attributes that belong to an XmlElement object.