Having difficulty with using XmlTextReader to print out certain values inside certain elements to the command line from an external .xml file

Question

I'm trying to store and print the value between <name></name> tags of, atleast, the first <item></item> element, but I can't "find", or "get to", the value of <name></name>.

(please explain your scenario more clearly...)

I plan on taking the extracted name value and converting it(all lowercase and add underscore for spaces between words) so that I can use it to search for an image file name within "images" folder.

If match is found - grab the file path to the image file, store it inside a variable and then create <image></image> within the current <item></item> element and paste the file path between the tags. Repeat that for another 999 items. If some of the items' name doesn't match any image file names - then create a log text file and store the names of the items that didn't get the match.

XML structure:

<items>
 <item>
  <name>Name1</name>
  <price>Price1</price>
  <description>Description1</description>
 </item>
 <item>
  <name>Name2</name>
  <price>Price2</price>
  <description>Description2</description>
 </item>
</items>

Code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;


    namespace myXmlParser
    {
        class Program
        {
            static void Main(string[] args)
            {
                XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader("C:\\items_data.xml");
                while (reader.Read())
                {
                    switch (reader.NodeType)
                    {
                        case XmlNodeType.Element: // The node is an element.
                            reader.MoveToElement();
                            Console.WriteLine(reader.Name);
                            break;
                        //case XmlNodeType.Text: //Display the text in each element.
                        //    Console.WriteLine(reader.Value);
                        //    break;
                        //case XmlNodeType.EndElement: //Display the end of the element.
                        //    Console.Write("</" + reader.Name);
                        //    Console.WriteLine(">");
                        //    break;
                    }

                }
                Console.ReadKey();

            }// main
        }// class
    }// namespace

Answer 1

Try reader.ReadContentAsString when reader.Name == "name".
Since you plan on editing the XML later, you might as well use XmlDocument, and apply the XPath you were suggested earlier.

Answer 2

Linq2Xml is easier to use

XDocument xDoc = XDocument.Load("C:\\items_data.xml");
var names = xDoc.Descendants("name")
    .Select(x => x.Value)
    .ToArray();

-

 xDoc.Descendants("name")
    .Where(x => x.Value == "Name1")
    .First()
    .Parent.Add(new XElement("image", "path of the image"));