Parsing a xml File in C#

Question

I need to parse an xml File in C#...The File will look some thing like this....

- <book>
  <rank>1</rank> 
  <list_name>Chapter Books</list_name> 
  <bestsellers_date>2010-12-26</bestsellers_date> 
  <published_date>2011-01-09</published_date> 
  <weeks_on_list>11</weeks_on_list> 
  <rank_last_week>0</rank_last_week> 
  <asterisk>0</asterisk> 
  <dagger>0</dagger> 
- <book_details>
- <book_detail>
  <title>THE LOST HERO</title> 
  <description>A return to Camp Half-Blood and semi-divine characters old and new.</description> 
  <contributor>by Rick Riordan</contributor> 
  <author>Rick Riordan</author> 
  <contributor_note /> 
  <price>18.99</price> 
  <age_group>Ages 10 and up</age_group> 
  <publisher>Disney-Hyperion</publisher> 
  </book_detail>
  </book_details>
- <isbns>
- <isbn>
  <isbn13>9781423113393</isbn13> 
  <isbn10>142311339X</isbn10> 
  </isbn>
  </isbns>
- <reviews>
- <review>
  <book_review_link /> 
  <first_chapter_link /> 
  <sunday_review_link /> 
  <article_chapter_link>http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/the-world-of-percy-jackson-lives-on-in-the-lost-hero/</article_chapter_link> 
  </review>
  </reviews>
  </book>
- <book>
  <rank>2</rank> 
  <list_name>Chapter Books</list_name> 
  <bestsellers_date>2010-12-26</bestsellers_date> 
  <published_date>2011-01-09</published_date> 
  <weeks_on_list>2</weeks_on_list> 
  <rank_last_week>0</rank_last_week> 
  <asterisk>0</asterisk> 
  <dagger>0</dagger> 
- <book_details>
- <book_detail>
  <title>THE GIFT</title> 
  <description>A sister and brother flex their new powers; a Witch and Wizard book.</description> 
  <contributor>by James Patterson and Ned Rust</contributor> 
  <author>James Patterson and Ned Rust</author> 
  <contributor_note /> 
  <price>17.99</price> 
  <age_group>Ages 10 and up</age_group> 
  <publisher>Little, Brown</publisher> 
  </book_detail>
  </book_details>
- <isbns>
- <isbn>
  <isbn13>9780316036252</isbn13> 
  <isbn10>0316036250</isbn10> 
  </isbn>
- <isbn>
  <isbn13>9780316122214</isbn13> 
  <isbn10>0316122211</isbn10> 
  </isbn>
  </isbns>
- <reviews>
- <review>
  <book_review_link /> 
  <first_chapter_link /> 
  <sunday_review_link /> 
  <article_chapter_link /> 
  </review>
  </reviews>
  </book>

The data between tags book is one record. Now the second record contains two ISBN's so such kind of data should be populated as 2 records in the table(with everything same but different ISBN's)

Answer 1

Use xsd.exe ! You can take a XML sample file, run xsd.exe on it twice (first to derive a XML schema from XML file, then to create a C# class from that schema) and you'll get a C# class which should be able to deserialize this XML into a C# object.:

C:\> xsd.exe (your-xml-file).xml     -- this generates a (your-xml-file).xsd file
C:\> xsd.exe (your-XSD-file).xsd /C  -- this generates the C# class from the XSD

The xsd.exe utility is part of the Microsoft Windows SDK currently at v7.1 which you can download for free from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bb980924

Now with this class in hand, you should be able to write something like:

XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(book));
var result = ser.Deserialize(@"C:\yourxmlfile.xml");