使用XDocument将XML元素值连接为字符串

Question

Given an XML Document - for instance:

<factory>
    <widgets>
        <widget>Foo</widget>
        <widget>Bar</widget>
        <widget>Baz</widget>
        <widget>Qux</widget>
    </widgets>
</factory>

I wish to build a line-break separated string of widget values - using the above XML, this would be:

Foo
Bar
Baz
Qux

The code I'm using to do this is:

var doc = XDocument.Parse(xml) //where XML is a string containing the above XML
var builder = new StringBuilder();
foreach(var widget in doc.Root.Element("widgets").Elements("widget"))
{
    builder.AppendLine(widget.Value);
}

However, the resulting string is FooBarBazQux rather than a newline-separated version. Setting a breakpoint on the AppendLine call reveals that widget.Value is being set to "FooBarBazQux", and the loop runs once rather than the 4 times I'm expecting.

I've tried running the query in LinqPad:

XDocument settings = XDocument.Parse (@"
    <factory>
        <widgets>
            <widget>Foo</widget>
            <widget>Bar</widget>
            <widget>Baz</widget>
            <widget>Qux</widget>
        </widgets>
    </factory>");


foreach(var x in settings.Root.Elements("widgets").Elements("widget"))
    x.Value.Dump("Widget Type");

and the results are correct and as expected.

Can anyone help me in getting a newline separated string of Widget values? I'm at a bit of a loss!

It might be worth noting that this is within a Xamarin.Forms application, using the PCL version of using System.Xml.Linq.

Answer 1

I don't know whether I should add it as an answer so it can be marked as such (or if I will get shouted at because I have already put it in a comment)

builder.ToString()

Answer 2

This was a stupid mistake, caused by "Fast Deployment" being enabled in the Android Xamarin project.

My XML File was being generated by the app if it didn't exist - I assumed that on re-deploying, all app assets were to being removed from the device. It turns out that when Fast Deployment is enabled, the device only updates NEW components of the application - ie the XML file wasn't being removed. The problem was caused by the XML file being out of date.

I believe that the XML document being initially incorrect was caused by the potential issue that StuartLC pointed out - I must have at one point called builder.AppendLine(doc.Root.Element("widgets").Value) , which returns the concatenation of the value of all child elements of widgets.

Thanks for all the help!