在使用C＃解释不包含内容的元素时，如何从XML（包含后代）读取兄弟元素的内容？

Question

I am trying to read the contents of an XML file and store it in various lists, however, where I keep running into trouble is trying to read the sibling nodes that are not the innermost child nodes (siblings 1-4 and tableName below).

<Parent parent="1">
  <sibling1>256</sibling1>
  <sibling2>1000</sibling2>
  <sibling3>25</sibling3>
  <sibling4 id="1">
    <tableName></tableName>
    <table id="0">
      <row id="0">
        <child1></child1>
        <child2>0</child2>
        <child3>default</child3>
      </row>
    </sibling4>
</Parent>

I can't use ReadElementContentAs because they have descendants, and I found a way to code around it, but I still run into trouble if I encounter an element that has no content (such as table name above). If the element has no content (and it could or could not have content), my code solution (example for tableName seen below) doesn't work and the program crashes because it's looking for the wrong kind of node. Is there an easier way to access the content of these siblings or a way to account for the fact that the element could have no content? I'm new to XML so I'm unsure of all the different methods. Thanks!

// tableName - WILL NOT WORK IF TABLE NAME IS LEFT BLANK (MUST HAVE DEFAULT)
xmlIn.ReadToDescendant("tableName");
xmlIn.Read();
List.tableName = xmlIn.Value;
xmlIn.Read();
xmlIn.ReadEndElement();

Answer 1

You have to check the type of the node before reading it or moving inside.

while (reader.Read())
{
    if (reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element && reader.LocalName.StartsWith("sibling"))
    {
        Console.Write(reader.LocalName + ": ");
        reader.Read();

        if (reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Text)
            Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadContentAsString());
        else
        {
            reader.ReadToFollowing("tableName");
            Console.Write(reader.LocalName + ": ");
            var tableName = reader.ReadElementContentAsString();
            Console.WriteLine($"'{tableName}'");
        }
    }
}