Reading XML to a Dictionary

Question

I need to read an XML file to a dictionary.

I read few guides and I only got confused from weird words that I don\'t understand (such as nodes, XML validation etc.). So,

Answer 1

var data = XElement.Parse(xml)
    .Elements("def")
    .ToDictionary(
        el => (int)el.Attribute("number"),
        el => (string)el.Attribute("name")
    );

This:

• parses the xml into an XElement (starting at )
• iterates over the elements
• forms a dictionary, using @number as the key (interpreting as an int), and @name as the value (as a string)
• assigns this dictionary to data, which is implicitly typed as Dictionary