How Do I Read An Array From A Xml-File In C#

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XML

At the moment iI got this:

    class robot
    {
        Configuratie config = new Configuratie();
        short[,] AlleCoordinaten = new short[3, 6]
        {
            {1,2,3,4,5,6},
            {6,5,4,3,2,1},
            {2,3,4,5,6,7}
        };
    }

But I want to put that array in a XML-file, so this is what I tried:

    class robot
    {
    Configuratie config = new Configuratie();

        short[,] AlleCoordinaten = new short[3, 6]
        {
           // errors are given here
            {(config.GetIntConfig("robot","positoin1"))},
            {(config.GetIntConfig("robot","positoin2"))},
            {(config.GetIntConfig("robot","positoin3"))}
        };
    }

configuration file:

        class Configuratie
        {
            private XDocument xdoc;

            public Configuratie()
            {
                xdoc = XDocument.Load("configuratie.xml");
            }
        public int GetIntConfig(string desc1, string desc2)
        {
            int value = 0;
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(desc1))
            {
                value = 0;
            }
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(desc1) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(desc2))
            {
                foreach (XElement node in xdoc.Descendants(desc1).Descendants(desc2))
                {
                    value = Convert.ToInt16(node.Value);
                }
            }
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(desc1) && string.IsNullOrEmpty(desc2))
            {
                foreach (XElement node in xdoc.Descendants(desc1))
                {
                    value = Convert.ToInt16(node.Value);
                }
            }
            return value;
            }
        }


XML file:

    <robot>
    <position1>1</position1>
    <position1>2</position1>
    <position1>3</position1>
    <position1>4</position1>
    <position1>5</position1>
    <position1>6</position1>
    etc...
    <position3>7</position3>
    </robot>

It still isnt working, could you guys help me with what I did wrong and maybe give an example.

Posted 6-Feb-14 2:43am

Member 10576431

Updated 6-Feb-14 3:37am

v2

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Comments

joshrduncan2012 6-Feb-14 9:15am

Instead of "It still isn't working..." can you please tell us why it isn't working and show us what the compiler is pointing to for the error (if any)?

Member 10576431 6-Feb-14 9:18am

Sure, i forgot to gave the errors, here there are: ''an array initializer of length 6 is expected.'' And: ''a field initializer cannot reference the nonstatic field method or property.''

BillWoodruff 6-Feb-14 9:29am

It's also important to state where in your code the errors occurred.

Member 10576431 6-Feb-14 9:37am

They occur here : short[,] AlleCoordinaten = new short[3, 6]

2 solutions

Solution 2

I'd suggest you focus on serializing/writing an XML file, or a JSON file, as outlined below.

Whichever format you used, de-serializing/reading the file back into an Array would be easy.

The "catch" is, as you may know, that .NET's Serialize facility does not support multi-dimensional Arrays.

You could easily use something like the FastJSON serializer/de-serializer by Mehdi Gholam here on CP, which will handle multi-dimensional Arrays: [^], and the resulting file would be fairly human-readable.

Another technique is to make your Array a jagged Array: i.e., short[][]: that can be serialized; see: [^]. If you re-structured your Array like this:

C#

private short[][] AlleCoordinaten2 = new short[3][]
{
    new short[] {1,2,3,4,5,6},
    new short[] {6,5,4,3,2,1},
    new short[] {2,3,4,5,6,7}
};

You could then write it to XMl like this:

C#

// required
using System.IO;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

private string fPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop);

private void WriteArrayToXML_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    using (var stream = File.Create(fPath + @"/AlleCoordinaten.xml"))
    {
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(short[][]));
        serializer.Serialize(stream, AlleCoordinaten2);
    }
}

The resulting XML would look like this:

XML

<arrayofarrayofshort xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <arrayofshort>
    <short>1</short>
    <short>2</short>
    <short>3</short>
    <short>4</short>
    <short>5</short>
    <short>6</short>
  </arrayofshort>
  <arrayofshort>
    <short>6</short>
    <short>5</short>
    <short>4</short>
    <short>3</short>
    <short>2</short>
    <short>1</short>
  </arrayofshort>
  <arrayofshort>
    <short>2</short>
    <short>3</short>
    <short>4</short>
    <short>5</short>
    <short>6</short>
    <short>7</short>
  </arrayofshort>
</arrayofarrayofshort>

Some folks write code to convert multi-dimensional arrays to jagged arrays for serialization, and the reverse: you can find discussion of that by Googling on: "serialize jagged arrays." I'd try to avoid techniques like those, if possible.

Posted 6-Feb-14 4:04am

BillWoodruff

Updated 6-Feb-14 4:39am

v3

Comments

Pete O'Hanlon 6-Feb-14 10:26am

Excellent answer Bill.

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Pete O'Hanlon · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-06T03:52:00

Solution 1

The error you are getting is because you are allocating an array of 3,6 short values here:

C#

short[,] AlleCoordinaten = new short[3, 6]
{
  // errors are given here
  {(config.GetIntConfig("robot","positoin1"))},
  {(config.GetIntConfig("robot","positoin2"))},
  {(config.GetIntConfig("robot","positoin3"))}
};

So, that's 3 rows of 1 element instead of 3 rows of 6 elements. As you aren't assigning the values up front, you would need to move the actual allocation of the elements. Put them in a method body and call that - so, you get:

C#

short[,] AlleCoordinaten;

private void AllocateCoords()
{
  AlleCoordinaten = new short[3,6]
  {
    { 
      GetConfig("positoin1"),
      GetConfig("positoin2"),
      GetConfig("positoin3"),
      GetConfig("positoin4"),
      GetConfig("positoin5"),
      GetConfig("positoin6"),
    },
    { 
      GetConfig("positoin7"),
      GetConfig("positoin8"),
      GetConfig("positoin9"),
      GetConfig("positoin10"),
      GetConfig("positoin11"),
      GetConfig("positoin12"),
    },
    { 
      GetConfig("positoin13"),
      GetConfig("positoin14"),
      GetConfig("positoin15"),
      GetConfig("positoin16"),
      GetConfig("positoin17"),
      GetConfig("positoin18"),
    }
  }
}

private int GetConfig(string position)
{
  return config.GetIntConfig("robot", position);
}

If I were doing this, I'd look at using a different structure and allocating the values from there, but that's just me - effectively, what you have here is a set of magic values; I'd feel more comfortable with meaningful settings.

Posted 6-Feb-14 3:52am

Pete O'Hanlon

Comments

Member 10576431 6-Feb-14 10:16am

I copied it but it tells me : cannot implicitly convert type int to short

Pete O'Hanlon 6-Feb-14 10:26am

Oops, that's right. Change the data type of the array from short to int.

Member 10576431 6-Feb-14 10:29am

Did that, but gave another error in another methode

Member 10576431 6-Feb-14 10:34am

class robot
{
Configuratie config = new Configuratie();
int[,] AlleCoordinaten;

private void AllocateCoords()
{
AlleCoordinaten = new int[3, 6]
{
{
GetConfig("positoin1"),
GetConfig("positoin2"),
GetConfig("positoin3"),
GetConfig("positoin4"),
GetConfig("positoin5"),
GetConfig("positoin6"),
},
{
GetConfig("positoin7"),
GetConfig("positoin8"),
GetConfig("positoin9"),
GetConfig("positoin10"),
GetConfig("positoin11"),
GetConfig("positoin12"),
},
{
GetConfig("positoin13"),
GetConfig("positoin14"),
GetConfig("positoin15"),
GetConfig("positoin16"),
GetConfig("positoin17"),
GetConfig("positoin18"),
}
};
}

private int GetConfig(string position)
{
return config.HaalIntConfig("robot", position);
}
private void methode2()
{
GoTo[0] = new Position();
for (short a=0 ; a<10 ; a++)
{
GoTo[0].degrees[0] = AlleCoordinaten[a,0];
GoTo[0].degrees[1] = AlleCoordinaten[a,1];
GoTo[0].degrees[2] = AlleCoordinaten[a,2];
GoTo[0].degrees[3] = AlleCoordinaten[a,3];
GoTo[0].degrees[4] = AlleCoordinaten[a,4];
GoTo[0].degrees[5] = AlleCoordinaten[a,5];
//here it tells me Cannot implicitly convert type int to short
}
}
}

Pete O'Hanlon 6-Feb-14 10:36am

Whatever you store in GoTo[...].degrees[...] has to be an int as well.

Member 10576431 6-Feb-14 10:43am

Im not sure, but i think i cant change that because the Poistion-class, is a DLL-file

Pete O'Hanlon 6-Feb-14 10:48am

Okay, so you would have to change the GetInt into GetShort and the corresponding ints to shorts.

Member 10576431 6-Feb-14 10:50am

Do i have to change that in my configuration file?

Pete O'Hanlon 6-Feb-14 10:59am

No. In your code - so GetIntConfig will become GetShortConfig (and return a short). The alternative is to cast the int to short in your for loop - so you would do something like GoTo[0].degrees[0] = (short)AlleCoordinaten[a,0];

Member 10576431 6-Feb-14 10:36am

AlleCoordinaten[a,0]
AlleCoordinaten[a,1]
AlleCoordinaten[a,2]
AlleCoordinaten[a,3]
AlleCoordinaten[a,4]
AlleCoordinaten[a,5]
The error: ''Cannot implicitly convert type int to short'' now shows up here