Linq to XML - Trying to select multiple nodes

Question

I am working with XML that is close to this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ROOT>
    <SECTION>
        <GROUP1>
            <NODE NAME="something" value="some value"/>
            <NODE NAME="something" VALUE="some value"/>
        </GROUP1>
        <GROUP2>
            <NODE NAME="something" value="some value"/>
            <NODE NAME="something" VALUE="some value"/>
        </GROUP2>
    </SECTION>
    <SECTION>
        <GROUP1>
            <NODE NAME="something" value="some value"/>
            <NODE NAME="something" VALUE="some value"/>
        </GROUP1>
        <GROUP2>
            <NODE NAME="something" value="some value"/>
            <NODE NAME="something" VALUE="some value"/>
        </GROUP2>
    </SECTION>
</ROOT>

I just want to select all the GROUP1 and GROUP2 elements together with a LINQ query. Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Try this:

var doc = XDocument.Parse(xmlString);
var groups = doc.Descendants("SECTION").Elements().Where(e => e.Name.LocalName.StartsWith("GROUP"));
Console.Write(groups.Count());

To find which group it comes from, we could get it by the parent of the XElement.

Answer 2

var doc = XDocument.Parse(xmlString);

var group1 = doc.Descendants("GROUP1");
var group2 = doc.Descendants("GROUP2");

is that what you're after?