multidimensional dictionary

Getting Started
1

Hi, I have an xml file that needs to be imported. The file has items, and the items have sub-items (these subitems can change, so it must be dynamic).

<items>
    <item>
      <id>4</id>
      <voornaam>name</voornaam>
      <achternaam></achternaam>
      <email>support@mail.nl</email>
      <...>
    </item>
    <item>
      <id>5</id>
      <voornaam>Site</voornaam>
      <achternaam>Administrator</achternaam>
      <email>support@mail.nl</email>
      <...>
    </item>
    <...>
</items>

What I have so far:

  Dim root As XmlNode
  root = xml.DocumentElement
  
  Dim itemsNode As XmlNode
  Dim itemNode As XmlNode
  Dim returnItemNode As XmlNode
  
  Dim val As XmlNode
  Dim key As String
  Dim value As String
  // 'we start with 1 because the first xml element is the <return> element
  For items As Integer = 1 To root.ChildCount-1 
    itemsNode = root.Child(items)

    For item As Integer = 0 To itemsNode.ChildCount-1
      itemNode = itemsNode.Child(item)
      
      For subItem As Integer = 0 To itemNode.ChildCount-1
        if (itemNode.Child(subItem).ChildCount > 0) Then
          key = itemNode.Child(subItem).LocalName
          value = itemNode.Child(subItem).FirstChild.Value
          dim d as new dictionary
          d.Value("key") = key
          d.Value("value") = value
          myglobal.data.Append(d) 
        End
      Next
    Next
  Next

Now my result in myglobal.data is:

dictionary(with key and value)
dictionary(with key and value)
dictionary(with key and value)
...

What I need is an array like this:

item1 
      dictionary(with key and value)
      dictionary(with key and value)
item2
      dictionary(with key and value)
      dictionary(with key and value)

That way I can loop my data and create an insert statement for each item.

Thanks!

2

[quote=69519:@Yves Hessels]What I need is an array like this:

item1
dictionary(with key and value)
dictionary(with key and value)
item2
dictionary(with key and value)
dictionary(with key and value)
That way I can loop my data and create an insert statement for each item.
[/quote]

Why use an array? Why not a dictionary?

For example, if your property myglobal.data were a dictionary, instead of appending the each sub dictionary to it as you do (myglobal.data.Append(d)), you’d write:

myglobal.data.value(itemNode.name) = d

(This is untested but I think itemNode.name returns the name of the sub-element, such as “item1”, and it would become the key of the outer dictionary.)

This way you can retrieve an dictionary of sub-items via the “item1” key, and then access all of the sub-dictionary’s parts with its keys.

You can also step through the outer dictionary just like an array if you want, via its .keys property.

I do stuff like this all the time. Dictionaries are awesome.

3

And in memory or on disk database might work better

4

Why not insert the data in the original loop through the xml document? Why create another tree structure when you already have one?

5

When I use that, I get this:

item1
  dictionary(with key and value) // only the last sub-item (e-mail in this case)
item2
  dictionary(with key and value) // only the last sub-item (e-mail)

Now the problem remains, but is moved a level down :slight_smile: , it overwrites the element each time so it only saves the last sub-item.

That’s a good alternative, but now I got curious and I would also like to figure it out the other way :wink: But thanks!