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How to work with dictionaries using LINQ to XML

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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