One way is to use XPath to find the nodes:

        Dim doc As New XPathDocument("..\..\XMLFile1.xml")
        Dim nav As XPathNavigator =
doc.CreateNavigator().SelectSingleNode("AppMode")
        Dim type As String = nav.GetAttribute("Type", "")
        Console.WriteLine("Type: {0}", type)
        nav = nav.SelectSingleNode("CurrentFolder")
        Dim path As String = nav.GetAttribute("Path", "")
        Console.WriteLine("Path: {0}", path)
        Dim filePaths As XPathNodeIterator = nav.Select("Tabs/FilePath")
        Console.WriteLine("Found {0} file path(s):", filePaths.Count)
        Dim paths(filePaths.Count) As String
        Dim i As Integer = 0
        For Each filePath As XPathNavigator In filePaths
            paths(i) = filePath.Value
            Console.WriteLine(paths(i))
            i = i + 1
        Next

Hi Justin,

From your description, you want to extract some certain values from an XML
document. In .net framework, there is quite rich API support for XML query
and processing. Here you have three different possible means to do it:

1. Use the xmlreader as you've tried, this is a memory efficient approahc,
but maybe more difficult to code(when xml is complex)

2. use XmlDocument + Xpath query, this is quite simple code

3. If you can use .NET 3.5, then "Linq to XML" is quite a good weapon you
can utilize

Here I've produced sample code (extracting the elements you want) for all
of the 3 approaches mentioned above:

===========using XML Reader================
       private void btnReader_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
       {
           StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(@"..\..\test.xml",
Encoding.UTF8);
           XmlReader xr = XmlReader.Create(sr);

           List<string> paths = new List<string>();

           while (xr.Read())
           {
               if (xr.IsStartElement("AppMode"))
               {
                   MessageBox.Show(xr.GetAttribute("Type"));
               }else if(xr.IsStartElement("CurrentFolder"))
               {
                   MessageBox.Show(xr.GetAttribute("Path"));
               }
               else if (xr.IsStartElement("FilePath"))
               {
                   paths.Add(xr.GetAttribute("Path"));
               }
           }

           MessageBox.Show("paths count: " + paths.Count);
           sr.Close();
       }
=====================

========USE XML document + xpath query==============
private void btnXmlDoc_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
       {
           XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
           doc.Load(@"..\..\test.xml");

           string type =
doc.SelectSingleNode("/AppMode").Attributes["Type"].Value;
           string curfolder =
doc.SelectSingleNode("/AppMode/CurrentFolder").Attributes["Path"].Value;

           XmlNodeList files = doc.SelectNodes("//FilePath");

           List<string> paths = new List<string>();

           foreach (XmlNode pnode in files)
           {
               paths.Add(pnode.InnerText);
           }

           MessageBox.Show("type: " + type + "\r\n"
               + "current folder: " + curfolder + "\r\n"
               + "paths count: " + paths.Count);

       
       }
==============================

============ use LINQ TO XML ===================
private void btnLinq_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
       {
           StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(@"..\..\test.xml",
Encoding.UTF8);
           XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load(sr);
           sr.Close();

           string type = xdoc.Element("AppMode").Attribute("Type").Value;
           var cfs = from cf in xdoc.Descendants("CurrentFolder")
                              select cf.Attribute("Path").Value;

           string curfolder = cfs.First();

           var paths = from fp in xdoc.Descendants("FilePath")
                       select fp.Value;

           List<string> fpaths = paths.ToList();

           MessageBox.Show("type: " + type + "\r\n"
              + "current folder: " + curfolder + "\r\n"
              + "paths count: " + fpaths.Count);

       }
=============================
     
if you want to know more about LINQ to XML, please have a look at the MSDN
reference:

#.NET Language-Integrated Query for XML Data
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb308960.aspx

Sincerely,

Steven Cheng

Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
msdnmg@microsoft.com.

==================================================
Get notification to my posts through email? Please refer to
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/managednewsgroups/default.aspx#notif
ications.

Note: The MSDN Managed Newsgroup support offering is for non-urgent issues
where an initial response from the community or a Microsoft Support
Engineer within 1 business day is acceptable. Please note that each follow
up response may take approximately 2 business days as the support
professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the
most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations
that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex
project analysis and dump analysis issues. Issues of this nature are best
handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer by contacting
Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/support/default.aspx.
==================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--------------------