Linq query on Xdocument returns "System.linq.Enumerable+WhereSelectEnumerableIterator'2[system.XML.Linq.Xelement,System.String]

I'm using the following XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?>
<hexML>
<head>
<title><![CDATA[ ]]></title>
<description><![CDATA Releases XML]]></description>
<flastmod date="2014-09-24T16:34:23 CET"/>
</head>
<body>
<press_releases>
<press_release id="1796256" joint_id="383320" language="fr" type="5">
<published date="2014-06-19T11:55:09 CET"/>
<categories>

<category id="75" label="French" keywords="language"/>

</categories>
<headline><![CDATA[Test Release for Website 3]]></headline>
<ingress></ingress>
<location href="http://rthrthrthrtrt.com/test.xml"/>
</press_release>
</press_releases>
</body>
</hexML>

I'm trying to get datas through this block of code: 

cp[cpt, 0] = (from c in xdoc.Descendants("press_release")
              where (int)c.Attribute("id") == r
              select c.Element("headline").Value).Single();

cp[cpt, 1] = (from c in xdoc.Descendants("press_release")
              where (int)c.Attribute("id") == r
              select (c.Element("published").Attribute("date").Value)).ToString();

cp[cpt, 3] = (from c in xdoc.Descendants("press_release")
              where (int)c.Attribute("id") == r
              select c.Element("location").Attribute("href").Value).ToString();

The first instruction returns correctly : Test Release for website 3. On the other hand , the 2 others returns "System.linq.Enumerable+WhereSelectEnumerableIterator'2[system.XML.Linq.Xelement,System.String]" instead.

Thank for your help

NB: I'm using .NET V3.5

Jon Skeet
people
quotationmark

Yes, that's because you've calling ToString() directly on a query for your second and third values - whereas in the first operation, you're calling Single() which will return a single string value.

Basically, don't call ToString() on queries. If you want a single value, use Single(), First() etc. If you want multiple values, iterate over them and do what you want with each of them in turn - or join them together in some appropriate fashion.

Note that this has nothing to do with LINQ to XML - it's just what LINQ to Objects does:

using System;
using System.Linq;

class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string[] values = { "a", "b", "c" };
        var query = values.Where(x => true);
        Console.WriteLine(query);
        Console.WriteLine(string.Join(";", query));
    }
}

Output:

System.Linq.Enumerable+WhereArrayIterator`1[System.String]
a;b;c

people

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