How to get values from XDocument instance/object

I'm fairly new at programming using XML and I'm having a difficulty accessing/manipulating the values in that datatype. I used a string variable xmlDoc and assigned the xml document (in string format) xmlDoc = drvEval.Row["EvalAnswers"].ToString();

When I'm trying to run this,

foreach (var answer in answers) { Response.Write("ddl_item=" + answer.Item + " answer=" + answer.Answer + "<br />"); }

It only gives me one output. The first node of result, and not all the contents of the xml document I parsed. Here is the complete code:

    private void ddl_Eval_SelectedIndexChanged (Object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    //Response.Write(ddl_Eval.SelectedValue.ToString() + " " + "value: " + ddl_Eval.SelectedIndex);

    dtEval = new DataTable();
    dtEval = data.GetEvaluation2();
    DataView dvEval = dtEval.DefaultView;

    string xmlDoc = String.Empty;

    foreach (DataRowView drvEval in dvEval)
    {
        if (drvEval.Row["EvaluationID"].ToString() == ddl_Eval.SelectedValue.ToString())
        {
            xmlDoc = drvEval.Row["EvalAnswers"].ToString();
        }
    }

    XDocument xdoc = new XDocument();
    xdoc = XDocument.Parse(xmlDoc);

    //Response.Write(xmlDoc);

    var answers = from answer in xdoc.Descendants("ANSWERS")
        select new
        {
            Answer = answer.Element("Answer").Value,
            Item = answer.Element("Answer").Attribute("item").Value,
        };

    foreach (var answer in answers)
    {
            Response.Write("ddl_item=" + answer.Item + "  answer=" + answer.Answer + "<br />");
    }

}

and here is the XML I have from SQL (in string format, not XML datatype)

<ANSWERS> <Answer item="ddl_3">A</Answer> <Answer item="ddl_8">A</Answer>开发者_开发百科; <Answer item="ddl_13">Y</Answer> <Answer item="ddl_16">Y</Answer> <Answer item="ddl_19">Y</Answer> <Answer item="ddl_22">N</Answer> <Answer item="ddl_26">Y</Answer> <Answer item="ddl_30">N</Answer> <Answer item="ddl_34">Y</Answer> <Answer item="ddl_38">N</Answer> <Answer item="ddl_42">StarLight</Answer> </ANSWERS>

What I wanted to do is to get all the values of the Answer and the values of the item attribute. What am I doing wrong? Please help as I'm totally stuck. :(

I got the concept on this link: Using LINQ to XML to Add Data to XML File in C#

You should add Elements to a XML file rather than assigning only one row to the string each time (and overwriting what you've added before.).

If you want to use this approach use:

xmlDoc += drvEval.Row["EvalAnswers"].ToString();

or more effieciently

StringBuilder xmlDoc = new StringBuilder();

foreach (DataRowView drvEval in dvEval)
{
    if (drvEval.Row["EvaluationID"].ToString() == ddl_Eval.SelectedValue.ToString())
        {
                 xmlDoc.Append(drvEval.Row["EvalAnswers"].ToString());
        }
}

But I recommend the Linq to XML approach:

Data To XML

or if you have lots of Data use XmlWriter or XmlTextWriter, which will create a file on disk and efficient.

XmlWriter

Whew! After doing a more thorough research, I was able to answer my own question. :D

Here's the complete code:

private void ddl_Eval_SelectedIndexChanged (Object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    //Response.Write(ddl_Eval.SelectedValue.ToString() + " " + "value: " + ddl_Eval.SelectedIndex);

    dtEval = new DataTable();
    dtEval = data.GetEvaluation2();
    DataView dvEval = dtEval.DefaultView;

    string xmlDoc = String.Empty;

    foreach (DataRowView drvEval in dvEval)
    {
        if (drvEval.Row["EvaluationID"].ToString() == ddl_Eval.SelectedValue.ToString())
        {
            xmlDoc = drvEval.Row["EvalAnswers"].ToString();
        }
    }

    XDocument xdoc = new XDocument();
    xdoc = XDocument.Parse(xmlDoc);

    foreach (XElement child in xdoc.Root.Elements("Answer"))
    {
        Response.Write(child.Attribute("item").Value + " " + child.Value + "<br />");
    }

}

Now I'm able to get the values of Answer and the values of the item attribute.