Load an XML File Into a WPF DataGrid

I just wrote a small article on Loading an XML file into a Windows Form's DataGridView Control but got a question on how to do the same in WPF. Here is another related article : Save Data from a DataGridView to XML.

In this article, we will see how to load an XML into a WPF DataGrid control. If you have not worked with the DataGrid control, I recommend reading DataGrid in WPF.

In ADO.NET, the DataSet class implements methods and properties to work with XML documents.

The ReadXml method is reads an XML file and loads it into a DataSet. ReadXml is an overloaded method; you can use it to read a data stream, TextReader, XmlReader, or an XML file and store it into a DataSet object, that can later be used to display the data in a tabular format. 

The following code snippet loads the Books.xml file into a DataSet. 

DataSet dataSet = new DataSet();

dataSet.ReadXml(@"C:\Books\Books.xml"); 

The following code snippet binds the default DataTable with a DataGridView control. 

dataGrid1.ItemsSource = dataSet.Tables[0].DefaultView; 

NOTE:  Make sure you add a reference to the System.Data namespace before using DataSet in your code. 

Sample 

Use the following procedure to create the sample:

• Create a WPF application using Visual Studio 2012
• Add a DataGrid Control to the Window
• Add a Button control then double-click on it and add the following code to the button click event handler. 

DataSet dataSet = new DataSet();

dataSet.ReadXml(@"C:\Books\Books.xml");

dataGrid1.ItemsSource = dataSet.Tables[0].DefaultView;

The output will be a DataGrid displaying the contents of an XML file. 

 

Stay tuned. In my next articles, I will show how to add, update, and delete a XML file data from a DataGrid control.