VBA - What's The XPath Syntax To Get Tag Names

I am trying to use a VBA macro to parse XML file. Given with the following structure:

  <bookstore>
  <book category="children">
    <title>Harry Potter</title>
    <author>J K. Rowling</author>
    <year>2005</year>
    <price>29.99</price>
  </book>
  <book category="web">
    <title>Learning XML</title>
    <author>Erik T. Ray</author>
    <year>2003</year>
    <price>39.95</price>
  </book>
  </bookstore>

How can I enumerate the output with element tags with its corresponding values as shown below?

book | category | children
title | harry potter
author | J K. Rowling
...

My code as follows:

Set xmlFile = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xmlFile.Load (file)
Set qXML = xmlFile.SelectNodes("/bookstore")
For i = 0 To qXML.Length - 1
  Debug.Print CStr(qXML(i).Text)
Next i

Solution

How to get Tag Names

"What's the XPath syntax to get Tag Names?"

Strictly speaking it's (XML)DOM syntax to to get .Name and/or .NodeName properties; XMLDOM (Document Object Model) is a cross-platform and language-independent interface treating the document as a tree structure and allowing programmatic access to the tree.

You can use, however the special syntax of XPath expressions (like e.g. "/bookstore/book/title") to address any logical part in the hierarchical xml document structure.

So a solution close to your OP would be:

Option Explicit             ' declaration head of your code module

Sub ExampleCall()
    Dim file As String: file = ThisWorkbook.Path & "\xml\bookstore.xml"
    Dim xmlFile As Object
    Set xmlFile = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
    If xmlFile.Load(file) Then
        Dim qXML As Object
        Set qXML = xmlFile.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("book")
        Dim q As Object
        For Each q In qXML
            Dim cnt As Long: cnt = cnt + 1
            Debug.Print Format(cnt, "--- 000 ---")
            Debug.Print q.Attributes(0).Name, "|" & q.Attributes(0).Text
            Dim i As Long
            For i = 0 To q.ChildNodes.Length - 1
                Debug.Print q.ChildNodes(i).nodeName, "|" & q.ChildNodes(i).Text
            Next
        Next
    End If
End Sub

Results in VBE's immediate window

--- 01 ---
category      |children
title         |Harry Potter
author        |J K. Rowling
year          |2005
price         |29.99
--- 02 ---
category      |web
title         |Learning XML
author        |Erik T. Ray
year          |2003
price         |39.95

Side note

As Microsoft.XMLDOM has been deprecated for years, I'd prefer binding to ►MSXML2 in the most current xml version Microsoft XML,v6.0, e.g. via

I. LATE Binding (as in OP)

    Dim xDoc As Object
    Set xDoc = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument.6.0")

II. EARLY Binding

    Dim xDoc As MSXML2.DOMDocument60     ' *) whereas MSXML2.DOMDocument (=old version 3.0)
    Set xDoc = New MSXML2.DOMDocument60  ' mind the missing point in digits

Side note: OP uses the object variable XMLFile instead of xDoc

Note that referencing DOMDocument without obvious versioning would bind internally to 3.0 by default (the last stable version before 6.0, any other versions are deprecated).

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