How can I remove multiple XML nodes at once?

Question

I can remove an xml node using

 XmlNode node = newsItem.SelectSingleNode("XYZ");
 node.ParentNode.RemoveChild(node);

But what if I want to remove multiple nodes at once, for example XYZ,ABC,PQR ?

Is there any way to remove all of these nodes at once or do I have to remove them one by one?

NOTE: XYZ,ABC,PQR being at the same level(ie they all have same parent)

Answer 1

Nothing is inbuilt when using the XmlDocument API, but you could write a utility extension method, for example:

public static void Remove(this XmlNode node, string xpath)
{
    var nodes = node.SelectNodes(xpath);
    foreach (XmlNode match in nodes)
    {
        match.ParentNode.RemoveChild(match);
    }
}

then call:

newsItem.Remove("XYZ|ABC|PQR");

If you can change to the XDocument API, then things may be different.

Answer 2

think you could do something like that using linq to xml.

var listOfNodesToRemove = new[]{"XYZ", "ABC", "PQR"};

var document = XDocument.Load(<pathtoyourfile>);
document.Descendants
        .Where(m => listOfNodesToRemove.Contains(m.Name.ToString())
        .Nodes()
        .Remove();

Answer 3

That would depend very much on the structure (nesting) etc.

But basically yes, for a handful of unrelated elements, select and remove them one at a time.

You could combine them to some extent:

List<string> RemoveNames = ...
var toBeRemoved = doc.Descendants().Where(d => RemoveNames.Contains(d.name));
foreach (var element in toBeRemoved.ToList()) ...