XNode.PreviousNode Property

public:
 property System::Xml::Linq::XNode ^ PreviousNode { System::Xml::Linq::XNode ^ get(); };

public System.Xml.Linq.XNode PreviousNode { get; }

public System.Xml.Linq.XNode? PreviousNode { get; }

member this.PreviousNode : System.Xml.Linq.XNode

Public ReadOnly Property PreviousNode As XNode

Property Value

The XNode that contains the previous sibling node.

Examples

The following example uses this property to loop through nodes.

XElement xmlTree = new XElement("Root",
    new XElement("Child1", 1),
    new XText("Some Text"),
    new XElement("Child2",
        2,
        new XElement("GrandChild", "GrandChild Content")
    ),
    new XComment("a comment"),
    new XElement("Child3")
);
XNode node = xmlTree.Element("Child2");
do {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    sb.Append(String.Format("NodeType: {0}", node.NodeType.ToString().PadRight(10)));
    switch (node.NodeType)
    {
        case XmlNodeType.Text:
            sb.Append((node as XText).Value);
            break;
        case XmlNodeType.Element:
            sb.Append((node as XElement).Name);
            break;
        case XmlNodeType.Comment:
            sb.Append((node as XComment).Value);
            break;
    }
    Console.WriteLine(sb.ToString());
}
while ((node = node.PreviousNode) != null);

Dim xmlTree As XElement = _
    <Root>
        <Child1>1</Child1>Some Text<Child2>2
            <GrandChild>GrandChild Content</GrandChild>
        </Child2>
        <!--a comment-->
        <Child3>3</Child3>
    </Root>

Dim node As XNode = xmlTree.Element("Child2")
Do
    Dim sb As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder()
    sb.Append(String.Format("NodeType: {0}", node.NodeType.ToString().PadRight(10)))
    Select Case node.NodeType
        Case XmlNodeType.Text
            sb.Append(DirectCast(node, XText).Value)
        Case XmlNodeType.Element
            sb.Append(DirectCast(node, XElement).Name)
        Case XmlNodeType.Comment
            sb.Append(DirectCast(node, XComment).Value)
    End Select
    Console.WriteLine(sb.ToString())

    node = node.PreviousNode
Loop While (Not (node Is Nothing))

This example produces the following output:

NodeType: Element   Child2
NodeType: Text      Some Text
NodeType: Element   Child1

Remarks

If this XNode does not have a parent, or if there is no previous node, this property returns null.

The XContainer stores its child nodes as a singly-linked list of XNode objects. This means that the PreviousNode property must traverse the list of direct child nodes under the parent container. Therefore, using this property might affect your performance.

See also

• LINQ to XML overview