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:

Answer 1

I really liked where Dexter is going up there so I translated it into a “fluent” extension method:

/// 

/// Returns the specified 
/// without namespace qualifiers on elements and attributes.
/// 
/// The element
public static XElement WithoutNamespaces(this XElement element)
{
    if (element == null) return null;

    #region delegates:

        Func getChildNode = e => (e.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element) ? (e as XElement).WithoutNamespaces() : e;

        Func> getAttributes = e => (e.HasAttributes) ?
            e.Attributes()
                .Where(a => !a.IsNamespaceDeclaration)
                .Select(a => new XAttribute(a.Name.LocalName, a.Value))
            :
            Enumerable.Empty();

        #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();