LINQ to XML versus XMLDOM

I have been trying out LINQ to XML and I am impressed with the improvements made over XML DOM. In this post, I will illustrate a few nice features where LINQ scores over DOM.

Creation of elements

To create a new element in DOM, the following code should be written:

XmlElement elem = XmlDocument.CreateElement("Employee");
XmlAttribute attr = XmlDocument.CreateAttribute("EmpID");
attr.Value = "100";
elem.Attributes.Add(attr);

The code is simpler in the case of LINQ:

XElement elem = new XElement("Employee",
               new XAttribute("EmpID", 100)); 

Adding elements as first node

In DOM, this takes quite a few steps. In LINQ, it is simpler with the AddFirst method: parent.AddFirst(child);

Removing elements is elegant

Removing elements in DOM is something like this: parent.Remove(child); In LINQ, removing a child element is done on the child element itself: child.Remove();

Setting optional attributes

In DOM, this is quite complex:

XmlAttribute attr = elem.Attributes("EmpID");
if(attr!=null)
{
    attr = XmlDocument.CreateAttribute("EmpID");    
}
attr.Value = "100";

In LINQ, this is a one liner: elem.SetAttributeValue("EmpID", 100);

Querying and XPath

In XML DOM, XPath was very useful to select elements:

XmlNode emp = XmlDocument.SelectSingleNode("/Employees/Employee[@id=100]");

Using LINQ is slightly longer. But the code is readable and it does not require a new skillset (XPath).

var qry = from elem in root.Elements("Employee")
                where elem.Attribute("EmpID").Value == 100
                select elem;

XElement emp = qry.First<xelement>();</xelement>

Overall, LINQ 2 XML supersedes DOM in capability and readability. The only disadvantage is that LINQ 2 XML does not support entities.