How to remove all namespaces from XML with C

Question

I am looking for the clean  elegant and smart solution to remove namespacees from all XML elements  How would function to do that look like   Defined interface   public interface IXMLUtils           string RemoveAllNamespaces string xmlDocument       Sample XML to remove NS from    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-16   gt   lt ArrayOfInserts xmlns xsi  http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema-instance  xmlns xsd  http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema  gt     lt insert gt       lt offer xmlns  http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types  gt 0174587 lt  offer gt       lt type2 xmlns  http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types  gt 014717 lt  type2 gt       lt supplier xmlns  http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types  gt 019172 lt  supplier gt       lt id frame xmlns  http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types    gt       lt type3 xmlns  http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types  gt         lt type2   gt         lt main gt false lt  main gt       lt  type3 gt       lt status xmlns  http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types  gt Some state lt  status gt     lt  insert gt   lt  ArrayOfInserts gt    After we call RemoveAllNamespaces xmlWithLotOfNs   we should get      lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-16   gt       lt ArrayOfInserts gt         lt insert gt           lt offer  gt 0174587 lt  offer gt           lt type2  gt 014717 lt  type2 gt           lt supplier  gt 019172 lt  supplier gt           lt id frame    gt           lt type3  gt             lt type2   gt             lt main gt false lt  main gt           lt  type3 gt           lt status  gt Some state lt  status gt         lt  insert gt       lt  ArrayOfInserts gt    Preffered language of solution is C  on  NET 3 5 SP1

User · Answer

Adding my that also cleans out the name of nodes that have namespace prefixes       public static string RemoveAllNamespaces XElement element                string tex   element ToString            var nsitems   element DescendantsAndSelf   Select n   gt  n ToString   Split        gt    0  Split   lt    1   Where n   gt  n Contains       DistinctBy n   gt  n  ToArray               Namespace prefix on nodes   lt a nodename  gt          tex   nsitems Aggregate tex   current  nsnode    gt  current Replace   lt   nsnode         lt     nsnode Split      1                  tex   nsitems Aggregate tex   current  nsnode    gt  current Replace   lt      nsnode         lt      nsnode Split      1                     Namespace attribs         var items   element DescendantsAndSelf   SelectMany d   gt  d Attributes   Where a   gt  a IsNamespaceDeclaration    a ToString   Contains        DistinctBy o   gt  o Value           tex   items Aggregate tex   current  xAttribute    gt  current Replace xAttribute ToString                   return tex

User · Answer

The tagged most useful answer has two flaws    It ignores attributes It doesn t work with  mixed mode  elements   Here is my take on this    public static XElement RemoveAllNamespaces XElement e         return new XElement e Name LocalName         from n in e Nodes           select   n is XElement    RemoveAllNamespaces n as XElement    n               e HasAttributes                  from a in e Attributes                   where   a IsNamespaceDeclaration                   select new XAttribute a Name LocalName  a Value     null                   Sample code here

User · Answer

Without resorting to an XSLT-based solution  if you want clean  elegant and smart  you d need some support from the framework  in particular  the visitor pattern could make this a breeze  Unfortunately  it s not available here   I ve implemented it inspired by LINQ s ExpressionVisitor to have a similar structure to it   With this  you can apply the visitor pattern to  LINQ-to-  XML objects    I ve done limited testing on this but it works well as far as I can tell   public abstract class XObjectVisitor       public virtual XObject Visit XObject node                if  node    null              return node Accept this           return node             public ReadOnlyCollection lt XObject gt  Visit IEnumerable lt XObject gt  nodes                return nodes Select node   gt  Visit node                Where node   gt  node    null               ToList                AsReadOnly               public T VisitAndConvert lt T gt  T node  where T   XObject               if  node    null              return Visit node  as T          return node             public ReadOnlyCollection lt T gt  VisitAndConvert lt T gt  IEnumerable lt T gt  nodes  where T   XObject               return nodes Select node   gt  VisitAndConvert node                Where node   gt  node    null               ToList                AsReadOnly               protected virtual XObject VisitAttribute XAttribute node                return node Update node Name  node Value              protected virtual XObject VisitComment XComment node                return node Update node Value              protected virtual XObject VisitDocument XDocument node                return node Update              node Declaration              VisitAndConvert node Nodes                          protected virtual XObject VisitElement XElement node                return node Update              node Name              VisitAndConvert node Attributes                 VisitAndConvert node Nodes                          protected virtual XObject VisitDocumentType XDocumentType node                return node Update              node Name              node PublicId              node SystemId              node InternalSubset                       protected virtual XObject VisitProcessingInstruction XProcessingInstruction node                return node Update              node Target              node Data                       protected virtual XObject VisitText XText node                return node Update node Value              protected virtual XObject VisitCData XCData node                return node Update node Value               region Implementation details     internal InternalAccessor Accessor               get   return new InternalAccessor this                internal class InternalAccessor               private XObjectVisitor visitor          internal InternalAccessor XObjectVisitor visitor    this visitor   visitor             internal XObject VisitAttribute XAttribute node    return visitor VisitAttribute node             internal XObject VisitComment XComment node    return visitor VisitComment node             internal XObject VisitDocument XDocument node    return visitor VisitDocument node             internal XObject VisitElement XElement node    return visitor VisitElement node             internal XObject VisitDocumentType XDocumentType node    return visitor VisitDocumentType node             internal XObject VisitProcessingInstruction XProcessingInstruction node    return visitor VisitProcessingInstruction node             internal XObject VisitText XText node    return visitor VisitText node             internal XObject VisitCData XCData node    return visitor VisitCData node                endregion    public static class XObjectVisitorExtensions        region XObject Accept  instance  method     public static XObject Accept this XObject node  XObjectVisitor visitor                Validation CheckNullReference node           Validation CheckArgumentNull visitor   visitor                yay  easy dynamic dispatch         Acceptor acceptor   new Acceptor node as dynamic           return acceptor Accept visitor             private class Acceptor               public Acceptor XAttribute node    this v   gt  v Accessor VisitAttribute node               public Acceptor XComment node    this v   gt  v Accessor VisitComment node               public Acceptor XDocument node    this v   gt  v Accessor VisitDocument node               public Acceptor XElement node    this v   gt  v Accessor VisitElement node               public Acceptor XDocumentType node    this v   gt  v Accessor VisitDocumentType node               public Acceptor XProcessingInstruction node    this v   gt  v Accessor VisitProcessingInstruction node               public Acceptor XText node    this v   gt  v Accessor VisitText node               public Acceptor XCData node    this v   gt  v Accessor VisitCData node                private Func lt XObjectVisitor  XObject gt  accept          private Acceptor Func lt XObjectVisitor  XObject gt  accept    this accept   accept             public XObject Accept XObjectVisitor visitor    return accept visitor                endregion       region XObject Update  instance  method     public static XObject Update this XAttribute node  XName name  string value                Validation CheckNullReference node           Validation CheckArgumentNull name   name            Validation CheckArgumentNull value   value             return new XAttribute name  value             public static XObject Update this XComment node  string value   null                Validation CheckNullReference node            return new XComment value             public static XObject Update this XDocument node  XDeclaration declaration   null  params object   content                Validation CheckNullReference node            return new XDocument declaration  content             public static XObject Update this XElement node  XName name  params object   content                Validation CheckNullReference node           Validation CheckArgumentNull name   name             return new XElement name  content             public static XObject Update this XDocumentType node  string name  string publicId   null  string systemId   null  string internalSubset   null                Validation CheckNullReference node           Validation CheckArgumentNull name   name             return new XDocumentType name  publicId  systemId  internalSubset             public static XObject Update this XProcessingInstruction node  string target  string data                Validation CheckNullReference node           Validation CheckArgumentNull target   target            Validation CheckArgumentNull data   data             return new XProcessingInstruction target  data             public static XObject Update this XText node  string value   null                Validation CheckNullReference node            return new XText value             public static XObject Update this XCData node  string value   null                Validation CheckNullReference node            return new XCData value              endregion    public static class Validation       public static void CheckNullReference lt T gt  T obj  where T   class               if  obj    null              throw new NullReferenceException               public static void CheckArgumentNull lt T gt  T obj  string paramName  where T   class               if  obj    null              throw new ArgumentNullException paramName             p s   this particular implementation uses some  NET 4 features to make implementation a bit easier cleaner  usage of dynamic and default arguments    It shouldn t be too dificult to make it  NET 3 5 compatible  perhaps even  NET 2 0 compatible   Then to implement the visitor  here s a generalized one that can change multiple namespaces  and the prefix used    public class ChangeNamespaceVisitor   XObjectVisitor       private INamespaceMappingManager manager      public ChangeNamespaceVisitor INamespaceMappingManager manager                Validation CheckArgumentNull manager   manager             this manager   manager             protected INamespaceMappingManager Manager   get   return manager           private XName ChangeNamespace XName name                var mapping   Manager GetMapping name Namespace           return mapping ChangeNamespace name              private XObject ChangeNamespaceDeclaration XAttribute node                var mapping   Manager GetMapping node Value           return mapping ChangeNamespaceDeclaration node              protected override XObject VisitAttribute XAttribute node                if  node IsNamespaceDeclaration              return ChangeNamespaceDeclaration node           return node Update ChangeNamespace node Name   node Value              protected override XObject VisitElement XElement node                return node Update              ChangeNamespace node Name               VisitAndConvert node Attributes                 VisitAndConvert node Nodes                           and all the gory implementation details public class NamespaceMappingManager   INamespaceMappingManager       private Dictionary lt XNamespace  INamespaceMapping gt  namespaces   new Dictionary lt XNamespace  INamespaceMapping gt          public NamespaceMappingManager Add XNamespace fromNs  XNamespace toNs  string toPrefix   null                var item   new NamespaceMapping fromNs  toNs  toPrefix           namespaces Add item FromNs  item           return this             public INamespaceMapping GetMapping XNamespace fromNs                INamespaceMapping mapping          if   namespaces TryGetValue fromNs  out mapping               mapping   new NullMapping            return mapping             private class NullMapping   INamespaceMapping               public XName ChangeNamespace XName name                        return name                     public XObject ChangeNamespaceDeclaration XAttribute node                        return node Update node Name  node Value                        private class NamespaceMapping   INamespaceMapping               private XNamespace fromNs          private XNamespace toNs          private string toPrefix          public NamespaceMapping XNamespace fromNs  XNamespace toNs  string toPrefix   null                        this fromNs   fromNs                    this toNs   toNs                    this toPrefix   toPrefix                     public XNamespace FromNs   get   return fromNs              public XNamespace ToNs   get   return toNs              public string ToPrefix   get   return toPrefix               public XName ChangeNamespace XName name                        return name Namespace    fromNs                   toNs   name LocalName                   name                     public XObject ChangeNamespaceDeclaration XAttribute node                        if  node Value    fromNs NamespaceName                                if  toNs    XNamespace None                      return null                  var xmlns    String IsNullOrWhiteSpace toPrefix                         XNamespace Xmlns   toPrefix                        node Name                  return node Update xmlns  toNs NamespaceName                             return node Update node Name  node Value                      public interface INamespaceMappingManager       INamespaceMapping GetMapping XNamespace fromNs      public interface INamespaceMapping       XName ChangeNamespace XName name       XObject ChangeNamespaceDeclaration XAttribute node       And a little helper method to get the ball rolling   T ChangeNamespace lt T gt  T node  XNamespace fromNs  XNamespace toNs  string toPrefix   null  where T   XObject       return node Accept          new ChangeNamespaceVisitor              new NamespaceMappingManager                    Add fromNs  toNs  toPrefix                  as T      Then to remove a namespace  you could call it like so   var doc   ChangeNamespace XDocument Load pathToXml       fromNs   http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types       toNs  null       Using this visitor  you can write a INamespaceMappingManager to remove all namespaces   T RemoveAllNamespaces lt T gt  T node  where T   XObject       return node Accept          new ChangeNamespaceVisitor new RemoveNamespaceMappingManager          as T     public class RemoveNamespaceMappingManager   INamespaceMappingManager       public INamespaceMapping GetMapping XNamespace fromNs                return new RemoveNamespaceMapping               private class RemoveNamespaceMapping   INamespaceMapping               public XName ChangeNamespace XName name                        return name LocalName                     public XObject ChangeNamespaceDeclaration XAttribute node                        return null

User · Answer

Slightly modified Peter s answer  this would works fine for the attribute as well  including remove the namespace and prefix  A bit sorry for the code looks a bit ugly    private static XElement RemoveAllNamespaces XElement xmlDocument                        if   xmlDocument HasElements                                XElement xElement   new XElement xmlDocument Name LocalName                   xElement Value   xmlDocument Value                   foreach  XAttribute attribute in xmlDocument Attributes                                          xElement Add new XAttribute attribute Name LocalName  attribute Value                                       return xElement                             else                               XElement xElement   new XElement xmlDocument Name LocalName   xmlDocument Elements   Select el   gt  RemoveAllNamespaces el                      foreach  XAttribute attribute in xmlDocument Attributes                                          xElement Add new XAttribute attribute Name LocalName  attribute Value                                       return xElement

User · Answer

the obligatory answer using LINQ   static XElement stripNS XElement root        return new XElement          root Name LocalName          root HasElements                root Elements   Select el   gt  stripNS el                  object root Value          static void Main         var xml   XElement Parse    lt  xml version   1 0   encoding   utf-16    gt       lt ArrayOfInserts xmlns xsi   http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema-instance   xmlns xsd   http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema   gt         lt insert gt           lt offer xmlns   http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types   gt 0174587 lt  offer gt           lt type2 xmlns   http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types   gt 014717 lt  type2 gt           lt supplier xmlns   http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types   gt 019172 lt  supplier gt           lt id frame xmlns   http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types     gt           lt type3 xmlns   http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types   gt             lt type2   gt             lt main gt false lt  main gt           lt  type3 gt           lt status xmlns   http   schema peters com doc 353 1 Types   gt Some state lt  status gt         lt  insert gt       lt  ArrayOfInserts gt         Console WriteLine stripNS xml

User · Answer

This worked for me          FileStream fs   new FileStream filePath  FileMode Open           StreamReader sr   new StreamReader fs            DataSet ds   new DataSet            ds ReadXml sr           ds Namespace                string outXML   ds GetXml            ds Dispose            sr Dispose            fs Dispose

User · Answer

Here s are Regex Replace one liner   public static string RemoveNamespaces this string xml        return Regex Replace xml       lt   lt   lt         lt      A-Za-z0-9     xmlns   A-Za-z0-9                        Here s a sample  https   regex101 com r fopydN 6  Warning there might be edge cases

User · Answer

I tried the first few solutions and didn t work for me  Mainly the problem with attributes being removed like the other have already mentioned  I would say my approach is very similar to Jimmy by using the XElement constructors that taking object as parameters   public static XElement RemoveAllNamespaces this XElement element        return new XElement element Name LocalName                          element HasAttributes   element Attributes   Select a   gt  new XAttribute a Name LocalName  a Value     null                          element HasElements   element Elements   Select e   gt  RemoveAllNamespaces e     null                          element Value

User · Answer

I tried some of the solutions  but as stated by so many  there are some edge cases   Used some of the regexes above  but came to the conclusion that a one step regex is not feasable   So here is my solution  2 step regex  find tags  within tags remove  do not alter cdata               Func lt Match  String gt  NamespaceRemover   delegate  Match match                                var result   match Value                  if  String IsNullOrEmpty match Groups  cdata   Value                                            find all prefixes within start-  end tag and attributes and also namespace declarations                     return Regex Replace result       lt   lt   lt          w    xmlns    w                                                     else                                          cdata as is                     return result                                                  XmlDocument doc                 string file              doc LoadXml                Regex Replace File ReadAllText file                       find all begin  cdata and end tags  do not change order                     lt     w    w        lt cdata gt    CDATA              w    w   gt                     new MatchEvaluator NamespaceRemover                                   For now it is 100  working for me

User · Answer

my answer  string-manipulation-based  lite-most code   public static string hilangkanNamespace string instrXML                char chrOpeningTag     lt            char chrClosingTag     gt            char chrSpasi                int intStartIndex   0          do                       int intIndexKu   instrXML IndexOf chrOpeningTag  intStartIndex               if  intIndexKu  lt  0                  break    kalau dah ga ketemu keluar             int intStart   instrXML IndexOfAny new char     chrSpasi  chrClosingTag    intIndexKu   1     mana yang ketemu duluan             if  intStart  lt  0                  break    kalau dah ga ketemu keluar             int intStop   instrXML IndexOf chrClosingTag  intStart               if  intStop  lt  0                  break    kalau dah ga ketemu keluar             else                 intStop--    exclude si closingTag             int intLengthToStrip   intStop - intStart   1              instrXML   instrXML Remove intStart  intLengthToStrip               intStartIndex   intStart            while  true            return instrXML

User · Answer

You can do that using Linq   public static string RemoveAllNamespaces string xmlDocument        var xml   XElement Parse xmlDocument       xml Descendants   Select o   gt  o Name   o Name LocalName  ToArray        return xml ToString

User · Answer

Here is my VB NET version of Dexter Legaspi C  Version  Shared Function RemoveAllNamespaces ByVal e As XElement  As XElement         Return New XElement e Name LocalName  New Object     From n In e Nodes Select If TypeOf n Is XElement  RemoveAllNamespaces TryCast n  XElement    n    If e HasAttributes   From a In e Attributes Select a   Nothing    End Function

User · Answer

Another solution that takes into account possibly interleaving TEXT and ELEMENT nodes  e g     lt parent gt      text1      lt child1  gt      text2      lt child2  gt   lt  parent gt    Code   using System Linq   namespace System Xml Linq       public static class XElementTransformExtensions               public static XElement WithoutNamespaces this XElement source                        return new XElement source Name LocalName                  source Attributes   Select WithoutNamespaces                   source Nodes   Select WithoutNamespaces                                    public static XAttribute WithoutNamespaces this XAttribute source                        return  source IsNamespaceDeclaration                   new XAttribute source Name LocalName  source Value                    default XAttribute                      public static XNode WithoutNamespaces this XNode source                        return                 source is XElement                       WithoutNamespaces  XElement source                        source

User · Answer

I know this question is supposedly solved  but I wasn t totally happy with the way it was implemented  I found another source over here on the MSDN blogs that has an overridden XmlTextWriter class that strips out the namespaces  I tweaked it a bit to get some other things I wanted in such as pretty formatting and preserving the root element  Here is what I have in my project at the moment   http   blogs msdn com b kaevans archive 2004 08 02 206432 aspx  Class       lt summary gt      Modified XML writer that writes  almost  no namespaces out with pretty formatting      lt  summary gt       lt seealso cref  http   blogs msdn com b kaevans archive 2004 08 02 206432 aspx   gt  public class XmlNoNamespaceWriter   XmlTextWriter       private bool  SkipAttribute   false      private int  EncounteredNamespaceCount   0       public XmlNoNamespaceWriter TextWriter writer            base writer                this Formatting   System Xml Formatting Indented             public override void WriteStartElement string prefix  string localName  string ns                base WriteStartElement null  localName  null              public override void WriteStartAttribute string prefix  string localName  string ns                  If the prefix or localname are  xmlns   don t write it            HOWEVER    if the 1st element  root   has a namespace we will write it          if   prefix CompareTo  xmlns      0                    localName CompareTo  xmlns      0               amp  amp   EncounteredNamespaceCount    gt  0                         SkipAttribute   true                    else                       base WriteStartAttribute null  localName  null                        public override void WriteString string text                  If we are writing an attribute  the text for the xmlns           or xmlns prefix declaration would occur here   Skip           it if this is the case          if    SkipAttribute                        base WriteString text                        public override void WriteEndAttribute                   If we skipped the WriteStartAttribute call  we have to           skip the WriteEndAttribute call as well or else the XmlWriter           will have an invalid state          if    SkipAttribute                        base WriteEndAttribute                        reset the boolean for the next attribute           SkipAttribute   false             public override void WriteQualifiedName string localName  string ns                  Always write the qualified name using only the           localname          base WriteQualifiedName localName  null             Usage    Save the updated document using our modified  almost  no-namespace XML writer using StreamWriter sw   new StreamWriter this XmlDocumentPath   using XmlNoNamespaceWriter xw   new XmlNoNamespaceWriter sw           This variable is of type  XmlDocument      this XmlDocumentRoot Save xw

User · Answer

user892217 s answer is almost correct  It won t compile as is  so needs a slight correction to the recursive call   private static XElement RemoveAllNamespaces XElement xmlDocument        XElement xElement       if   xmlDocument HasElements                xElement   new XElement xmlDocument Name LocalName    Value   xmlDocument Value              else               xElement   new XElement xmlDocument Name LocalName  xmlDocument Elements   Select x   gt  RemoveAllNamespaces x                foreach  var attribute in xmlDocument Attributes                  if   attribute IsNamespaceDeclaration                        xElement Add attribute                        return xElement

User · Answer

The reply s by Jimmy and Peter were a great help  but they actually removed all attributes  so I made a slight modification   Imports System Runtime CompilerServices  Friend Module XElementExtensions       lt Extension   gt        Public Function RemoveAllNamespaces ByVal element As XElement  As XElement         If element HasElements Then             Dim cleanElement   RemoveAllNamespaces New XElement element Name LocalName  element Attributes               cleanElement Add element Elements Select Function el  RemoveAllNamespaces el                Return cleanElement         Else             Dim allAttributesExceptNamespaces   element Attributes Where Function attr  Not attr IsNamespaceDeclaration              element ReplaceAttributes allAttributesExceptNamespaces              Return element         End If      End Function  End Module

User · Answer

After much searching for a solution to this very issue  this particular page seemed to have the most beef   however  nothing quite fit exactly  so I took the old-fashioned way and just parsed the stuff out I wanted out   Hope this helps someone    Note  this also removes the SOAP or similar envelope stuff            public static string RemoveNamespaces string psXml                              parse through the passed XML  and remove any and all namespace references   also            removes soap envelope header s  body  or any other references via     entities             leaving all data intact                    string xsXml       xsCurrQtChr               int xiPos   0  xiLastPos   psXml Length - 1          bool xbInNode   false           while  xiPos  lt   xiLastPos                        string xsCurrChr   psXml Substring xiPos  1               xiPos                if  xbInNode                                if  xsCurrChr                                                  soap envelope or body  or some such                         we ll strip these node wrappers completely                        need to first strip the beginning of it off   i e    lt soap  or   lt s                       int xi   xsXml Length                      string xsChr                           do                                               xi--                          xsChr   xsXml Substring xi  1                           xsXml   xsXml Substring 0  xi                         while  xsChr      lt                             next  find end of node                     string xsQt                           do                                               xiPos                            if  xiPos  lt   xiLastPos                                                        xsChr   psXml Substring xiPos  1                               if  xsQt Length    0                                                                if  xsChr           xsChr                                                                                xsQt   xsChr                                                                                              else                                                               if  xsChr    xsQt                                                                        xsQt           end of quote                                                                   else                                                                       if  xsChr      gt    xsChr    x           stay in loop   this is not end of node                                                                                                                 while  xsChr      gt    amp  amp  xiPos  lt   xiLastPos                       xiPos                  skip over closing   gt                       xbInNode   false                                    else                                       if  xsCurrChr      gt                                                  xbInNode   false                          xsXml    xsCurrChr                                            else                                               if  xsCurrChr           xsCurrChr      t                                                            potential namespace   let s check   next character must be                                    or more white space  and if not  skip until we find such                             string xsChr                                   int xiOrgLen   xsXml Length                              xsXml    xsCurrChr                              do                                                               if  xiPos  lt   xiLastPos                                                                        xsChr   psXml Substring xiPos  1                                       xiPos                                        if  xsChr           xsChr      r     xsChr      n     xsChr      t                                                                                    carry on  white space                                         xsXml    xsChr                                                                            else                                                                               if  xsChr           xsChr      gt                                                                                          xsXml    xsChr                                                                                    else                                                                                          namespace  - get rid of it                                             xsXml   xsXml Substring 0  xiOrgLen - 0            first  truncate any added whitespace                                                next  peek forward until we find     or   gt                                               string xsQt                                                   do                                                                                               if  xiPos  lt   xiLastPos                                                                                                        xsChr   psXml Substring xiPos  1                                                       xiPos                                                        if  xsQt Length  gt  0                                                                                                                if  xsChr    xsQt  xsQt       else xsChr    x                                                                                                             else                                                                                                               if  xsChr           xsChr          xsQt   xsChr                                                                                                                                                        while  xsChr      gt    amp  amp  xsChr         amp  amp  xiPos  lt   xiLastPos                                               if  xsChr      gt      xsChr         xsXml    xsChr                                              xbInNode   false                                                                                                                                                  while  xsChr      gt    amp  amp  xsChr         amp  amp  xiPos  lt   xiLastPos                                                     else                                                       xsXml    xsCurrChr                                                                                              else                                                     if not currently inside a node  then we are in a value  or about to enter a new node                                     xsXml    xsCurrChr                  if  xsCurrQtChr Length    0                                        if  xsCurrChr      lt                                                  xbInNode   true                                                          else                                                                 currently inside a quoted string                                            if  xsCurrQtChr    xsCurrChr                                                   finishing quoted string                         xsCurrQtChr                                                                                return  xsXml

User · Answer

That will do the trick  -   foreach  XElement XE in Xml DescendantsAndSelf             Stripping the namespace by setting the name of the element to it s localname only     XE Name   XE Name LocalName         replacing all attributes with attributes that are not namespaces and their names are set to only the localname     XE ReplaceAttributes  from xattrib in XE Attributes   Where xa   gt   xa IsNamespaceDeclaration  select new XAttribute xattrib Name LocalName  xattrib Value

User · Answer

For attributes to work the for loop for adding attribute should go after recursion  also need to check if IsNamespaceDeclaration   private static XElement RemoveAllNamespaces XElement xmlDocument        XElement xElement       if   xmlDocument HasElements                xElement   new XElement xmlDocument Name LocalName    Value   xmlDocument Value              else               xElement   new XElement xmlDocument Name LocalName  xmlDocument Elements   Select RemoveAllNamespaces               foreach  var attribute in xmlDocument Attributes                  if   attribute IsNamespaceDeclaration                        xElement Add attribute                        return xElement

User · Answer

I really liked where Dexter is going up there so I translated it into a    fluent    extension method        lt summary gt      Returns the specified  lt see cref  XElement   gt      without namespace qualifiers on elements and attributes       lt  summary gt       lt param name  element  gt The element lt  param gt  public static XElement WithoutNamespaces this XElement element        if  element    null  return null        region delegates           Func lt XNode  XNode gt  getChildNode   e   gt   e NodeType    XmlNodeType Element     e as XElement  WithoutNamespaces     e           Func lt XElement  IEnumerable lt XAttribute gt  gt  getAttributes   e   gt   e HasAttributes                e Attributes                    Where a   gt   a IsNamespaceDeclaration                   Select a   gt  new XAttribute a Name LocalName  a Value                             Enumerable Empty lt XAttribute gt               endregion      return new XElement element Name LocalName          element Nodes   Select getChildNode           getAttributes element        The    fluent    approach allows me to do this   var xml   File ReadAllText presentationFile   var xDoc   XDocument Parse xml   var xRoot   xDoc Root WithoutNamespaces

User · Answer

Without recreating whole node hierarchy   private static void RemoveDefNamespace XElement element        var defNamespase   element Attribute  xmlns        if  defNamespase    null          defNamespase Remove         element Name   element Name LocalName      foreach  var child in element Elements                  RemoveDefNamespace child

User · Answer

I think this is shortest answer but for constuctions like   you will have another discussion  I also have regex to convert   lt bcm info gt  lt  bcm info gt   to   lt info gt  lt  info gt   but it wasn t optimized  If someone ask me I will share it  So  my solution is       public string RemoveAllNamespaces string xmlDocument                return Regex Replace xmlDocument     sxmlns  u003A w    u003D u0022   u0022

User · Answer

Well  here is the final answer  I have used great Jimmy idea  which unfortunately is not complete itself  and complete recursion function to work properly   Based on interface   string RemoveAllNamespaces string xmlDocument     I represent here final clean and universal C  solution for removing XML namespaces     Implemented based on interface  not part of algorithm public static string RemoveAllNamespaces string xmlDocument        XElement xmlDocumentWithoutNs   RemoveAllNamespaces XElement Parse xmlDocument         return xmlDocumentWithoutNs ToString         Core recursion function  private static XElement RemoveAllNamespaces XElement xmlDocument                if   xmlDocument HasElements                        XElement xElement   new XElement xmlDocument Name LocalName               xElement Value   xmlDocument Value               foreach  XAttribute attribute in xmlDocument Attributes                    xElement Add attribute                return xElement                    return new XElement xmlDocument Name LocalName  xmlDocument Elements   Select el   gt  RemoveAllNamespaces el             It s working 100   but I have not tested it much so it may not cover some special cases    But it is good base to start

User · Answer

Simple solution that actually renames the elements in-place  not creating a copy  and does a pretty good job of replacing the attributes   public void RemoveAllNamespaces ref XElement value      List lt XAttribute gt  attributesToRemove   new List lt XAttribute gt       foreach  void e loopVariable in value DescendantsAndSelf        e   e loopVariable      if  e Name Namespace    XNamespace None          e Name   e Name LocalName            foreach  void a loopVariable in e Attributes          a   a loopVariable        if  a IsNamespaceDeclaration              do not keep it at all         attributesToRemove Add a           else if  a Name Namespace    XNamespace None            e SetAttributeValue a Name LocalName  a Value           attributesToRemove Add a                       foreach  void a loopVariable in attributesToRemove        a   a loopVariable      a Remove            Note  this does not always preserve original attribute order  but I m sure you could change it to do that pretty easily if it s important to you   Also note that this also could throw an exception  if you had an XElement attributes that are only unique with the namespace  like    lt root xmlns ns1  a  xmlns ns2  b  gt       lt elem ns1 dupAttrib    ns2 dupAttrib      gt   lt  root gt    which really seems like an inherent problem  But since the question indicated outputing a String  not an XElement  in this case you could have a solution that would output a valid String that was an invalid XElement   I also liked jocull s answer using a custom XmlWriter  but when I tried it  it did not work for me  Although it all looks correct  I couldn t tell if the XmlNoNamespaceWriter class had any effect at all  it definitely was not removing the namespaces as I wanted it to

User · Answer

Here is a regex based solution to this problem          private XmlDocument RemoveNS XmlDocument doc                var xml   doc OuterXml          var newxml   Regex Replace xml    xmlns  xsi  xsd                         var newdoc   new XmlDocument            newdoc LoadXml newxml           return newdoc

User · Answer

And this is the perfect solution that will also remove XSI elements   If you remove the xmlns and don t remove XSI   Net shouts at you      string xml   node OuterXml    Regex below finds strings that start with xmlns  may or may not have  and some text  then continue with     and    have a streach of text that does not contain quotes and end with    similar  will happen to an attribute    that starts with xsi  string strXMLPattern     xmlns   w                 xsi   w                   xml   Regex Replace xml  strXMLPattern

User · Answer

Pick it up again  in C  - added line for copying the attributes        static XElement stripNS XElement root                XElement res   new XElement              root Name LocalName              root HasElements                   root Elements   Select el   gt  stripNS el                      object root Value                     res ReplaceAttributes              root Attributes   Where attr   gt    attr IsNamespaceDeclaration              return res

User · Answer

The obligatory answer using XSLT    lt xsl stylesheet version  1 0  xmlns xsl  http   www w3 org 1999 XSL Transform  gt     lt xsl output method  xml  indent  no  encoding  UTF-8   gt      lt xsl template match    comment   processing-instruction    gt       lt xsl copy gt         lt xsl apply-templates  gt       lt  xsl copy gt     lt  xsl template gt      lt xsl template match     gt       lt xsl element name   local-name     gt         lt xsl apply-templates select     node     gt       lt  xsl element gt     lt  xsl template gt      lt xsl template match      gt       lt xsl attribute name   local-name     gt         lt xsl value-of select      gt       lt  xsl attribute gt     lt  xsl template gt    lt  xsl stylesheet gt

User · Answer

This is a solution based on Peter Stegnar s accepted answer   I used it  but  as andygjp and John Saunders remarked  his code ignores attributes   I needed to take care of attributes too  so I adapted his code  Andy s version was Visual Basic  this is still c    I know it s been a while  but perhaps it ll save somebody some time one day       private static XElement RemoveAllNamespaces XElement xmlDocument                XElement xmlDocumentWithoutNs   removeAllNamespaces xmlDocument           return xmlDocumentWithoutNs             private static XElement removeAllNamespaces XElement xmlDocument                var stripped   new XElement xmlDocument Name LocalName                       foreach  var attribute in                 xmlDocument Attributes   Where                  attribute   gt                       attribute IsNamespaceDeclaration  amp  amp                      String IsNullOrEmpty attribute Name NamespaceName                          stripped Add new XAttribute attribute Name LocalName  attribute Value                      if   xmlDocument HasElements                        stripped Value   xmlDocument Value              return stripped                    stripped Add xmlDocument Elements   Select              el   gt                  RemoveAllNamespaces el                         return stripped

User · Answer

Bit late to the party on this one but here s what I used recently   var doc   XDocument Parse xmlString   doc Root DescendantNodesAndSelf   OfType lt XElement gt    Attributes   Where att   gt  att IsNamespaceDeclaration  Remove       taken from this MSDN Thread   Edit As per the comment below  it appears that while this removes the namespace prefix from the nodes it doesn t actually remove the xmlns attribute  To do that you need to also reset the name of each node to it s localname  eg name minus namespace   foreach  var node in doc Root DescendantNodesAndSelf   OfType lt XElement gt           node Name   node Name LocalName

[c#] How to remove all namespaces from XML with C#?

Examples related to c#

Examples related to xml