Sorting the result of an XPath query?

[Ben Fidge]

Is it possible to sort the result of an XPath "select"
query?

I need to return a subset of a large xml file, and XPath
is the way to go. I'd like to sort this subset afterwards?

This seems like a common task so should be quite trivial.
I've seen the same thing done but by first pumping the
subset into an XmlDocument then applying XSLT.

Is there an easier way, possibly working directly on the
XPathNodeIterat or?

Thanks

Ben Fidge

[Oleg Tkachenko]

Ben Fidge wrote:

Is it possible to sort the result of an XPath "select"
query?

Sure it's possible, here is MSDN sample on AddSort method of
XPathExpression class:

XPathDocument doc = new XPathDocument(" booksort.xml");
XPathNavigator nav = doc.CreateNavig ator();

//Select all books by Jane Austen.
XPathExpression expr;
expr = nav.Compile("de scendant::book[author/last-name='Austen']");

//Sort the selected books by title.
expr.AddSort("t itle", XmlSortOrder.As cending, XmlCaseOrder.No ne,
"", XmlDataType.Tex t);

//Display the selection.
XPathNodeIterat or iterator = nav.Select(expr );
while (iterator.MoveN ext()){
XPathNavigator nav2 = iterator.Curren t.Clone();
nav2.MoveToFirs tChild();
Console.WriteLi ne("Book title: {0}", nav2.Value);
}

--
Oleg Tkachenko
XML Insider
http://www.tkachenko.com/blog

[Ben Fidge]

Thanks Oleg,

I knew there must be a simple way of doing it.

Ben

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