C#: How to get the name (with prefix) from XElement as string?

Question

This might be duplicate since my question seems so trivial, but I haven't been able to find the answer here on stackoverflow.com.

I have an XElement with data like this:

<abc:MyElement>My value</abc:MyElement>

Question: How do I get the complete name with prefix as a string from the XElement?

Expected result:

abc:MyElement

Audwin

Answer 1

My solution so far has been to use the method GetPrefixOfNamespace available in the XElement.

Though not a pretty solution, it gives me what I want:

XElement xml = new XElement(...);
string nameWithPrefix = xml.GetPrefixOfNamespace(xml.Name.Namespace) + 
                        ":" + 
                        xml.Name.LocalName;

More elegant solutions are very welcome :)

Audwin

Answer 2

Correct I was not using the same objects as you. with LINQ namesapce you the solution is:

using System.Xml.XPath; // <-- Add this namespace.

XNamespace ci = "http://foo.com";
XElement root = new XElement(ci + "Root", new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "abc", "http://foo.com"));
XElement childElement = new XElement(ci + "MyElement", "content");
root.Add(childElement);
var str = childElement.XPathEvaluate("name()"); // <-- Tell Xpath to do the work for you :).
Console.WriteLine(str);

prints

abc:MyElement

Accrescent

That looks good, if I was using an XmlElement. But since I am using an XElement it doesn't work :) – Audwin

Answer 3

Does string.Format("{0}:{1}", XElement.Prefix, XElement.Name) not work?

Ehtelehud

I don't have any property Prefix on the XElement. It would be a very nice solution if I had though :) – Audwin

Which version of the framework are you using? MSDN shows it having that property. – Ehtelehud

Can you direct me closer? I cannot find the property/method Prefix. I can find the method public string GetPrefixOfNamespace(XNamespace ns) and so far I have used that one to give me the prefix. – Audwin

You are right. I don't know why I thought it was there... your solution looks like the best one to me, unless you wanted to do some XPath style LINQ queries, but that is definitely not more elegant. – Ehtelehud

Well your suggestion was still just what I wished for ;) – Audwin

This comment could potentially have been the answer, and you can't mark a comment as an answer. If this suggestion were to have fixed the questioner's problem, I would like to have been marked as the answer... – Ehtelehud

No that would not work when running through XDocument stuff, such as Save. – Duffey

Answer 4

XNamespace ci = "http://foo.com";
XElement myElement = new XElement(ci + "MyElement", "MyValue");
XElement rootElement = new XElement("root",
        new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "abc", ci), myElement);

var str = myElement.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(str);

prints

<abc:MyElement xmlns:abc="http://foo.com">MyValue</abc:MyElement>

Mcnair

I have tried to make my question more clear. I just want the prefix and the element name (abc:MyElement) - not the entire element with namespaces and value. – Audwin

Answer 5

This will return prefix from XElement:

myElement.GetPrefixOfNamespace(node.Name.Namespace);

Dowden

No it does not, it returns the URI part of the namespace, not the prefix. – Loyalist