Reading specific XML elements from XML file

You could use linq to xml.

    var xmlStr = File.ReadAllText("fileName.xml");    var str = XElement.Parse(xmlStr);    var result = str.Elements("word").Where(x => x.Element("category").Value.Equals("verb")).ToList();    Console.WriteLine(result);

You could use an XPath, too. A bit old fashioned but still effective:

using System.Xml;...XmlDocument xmlDocument;xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();xmlDocument.LoadXml(xml);foreach (XmlElement xmlElement in     xmlDocument.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("word[category='verb']")){    Console.Out.WriteLine(xmlElement.OuterXml);}

This is how I would do it (the code below has been tested, full source provided below), begin by creating a class with common properties

    class Word    {        public string Base { get; set; }        public string Category { get; set; }        public string Id { get; set; }    }

load using XDocument with INPUT_DATA for demonstration purposes and find element name with lexicon . . .

    XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(INPUT_DATA);    XElement lex = doc.Element("lexicon");

make sure there is a value and use linq to extract the word elements from it . . .

    Word[] catWords = null;    if (lex != null)    {        IEnumerable<XElement> words = lex.Elements("word");        catWords = (from itm in words                    where itm.Element("category") != null                        && itm.Element("category").Value == "verb"                        && itm.Element("id") != null                        && itm.Element("base") != null                    select new Word()                     {                        Base = itm.Element("base").Value,                        Category = itm.Element("category").Value,                        Id = itm.Element("id").Value,                    }).ToArray<Word>();    }

The where statement checks if the category element exists and that the category value is not null and then check it again that it is a verb. Then check that the other nodes also exists . . .

The linq query will return an IEnumerable< Typename > object, so we can call ToArray< Typename >() to cast the entire collection into the type we want.

Then print it to get . . .

[Found] Id: E0006429 Base: abandon Category: verb[Found] Id: E0006524 Base: abolish Category: verb

Full Source:

using System;using System.Collections.Generic;using System.Linq;using System.Xml.Linq;namespace test{    class Program    {        class Word        {            public string Base { get; set; }            public string Category { get; set; }            public string Id { get; set; }        }        static void Main(string[] args)        {            XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(INPUT_DATA);            XElement lex = doc.Element("lexicon");            Word[] catWords = null;            if (lex != null)            {                IEnumerable<XElement> words = lex.Elements("word");                catWords = (from itm in words                            where itm.Element("category") != null                                && itm.Element("category").Value == "verb"                                && itm.Element("id") != null                                && itm.Element("base") != null                            select new Word()                             {                                Base = itm.Element("base").Value,                                Category = itm.Element("category").Value,                                Id = itm.Element("id").Value,                            }).ToArray<Word>();            }            //print it            if (catWords != null)            {                Console.WriteLine("Words with <category> and value verb:\n");                foreach (Word itm in catWords)                    Console.WriteLine("[Found]\n Id: {0}\n Base: {1}\n Category: {2}\n",                         itm.Id, itm.Base, itm.Category);            }        }        const string INPUT_DATA =        @"<?xml version=""1.0""?>        <lexicon>        <word>          <base>a</base>          <category>determiner</category>          <id>E0006419</id>        </word>        <word>          <base>abandon</base>          <category>verb</category>          <id>E0006429</id>          <ditransitive/>          <transitive/>        </word>        <word>          <base>abbey</base>          <category>noun</category>          <id>E0203496</id>        </word>        <word>          <base>ability</base>          <category>noun</category>          <id>E0006490</id>        </word>        <word>          <base>able</base>          <category>adjective</category>          <id>E0006510</id>          <predicative/>          <qualitative/>        </word>        <word>          <base>abnormal</base>          <category>adjective</category>          <id>E0006517</id>          <predicative/>          <qualitative/>        </word>        <word>          <base>abolish</base>          <category>verb</category>          <id>E0006524</id>          <transitive/>        </word>        </lexicon>";    }}