How to get xpath from an XmlNode instance

Question

Could someone supply some code that would get the xpath of a System.Xml.XmlNode instance?

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you do this, you will get a Path with Names of der Nodes AND the Position, if you have Nodes with the same name like this: "/Service[1]/System[1]/Group[1]/Folder[2]/File[2]"

public string GetXPathToNode(XmlNode node)
{         
    if (node.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Attribute)
    {             
        // attributes have an OwnerElement, not a ParentNode; also they have             
        // to be matched by name, not found by position             
        return String.Format("{0}/@{1}", GetXPathToNode(((XmlAttribute)node).OwnerElement), node.Name);
    }
    if (node.ParentNode == null)
    {             
        // the only node with no parent is the root node, which has no path
        return "";
    }

    //get the index
    int iIndex = 1;
    XmlNode xnIndex = node;
    while (xnIndex.PreviousSibling != null && xnIndex.PreviousSibling.Name == xnIndex.Name)
    {
         iIndex++;
         xnIndex = xnIndex.PreviousSibling; 
    }

    // the path to a node is the path to its parent, plus "/node()[n]", where
    // n is its position among its siblings.         
    return String.Format("{0}/{1}[{2}]", GetXPathToNode(node.ParentNode), node.Name, iIndex);
}