XML parse check if attribute exist

Question

I've made a method which checks if an attribute exist in a XML-file. If it does not exist it returns "False". It works but it takes a very long time to parse the file. It seems it reads the whole file for each single row. Have I missed something here? Can I make it more effective somehow?

    public static IEnumerable<RowData> getXML(string XMLpath)
    {
        XDocument xmlDoc = XDocument.Load("spec.xml");

        var specs = from spec in xmlDoc.Descendants("spec")
                    select new RowData
                    {
                        number= (string)spec.Attribute("nbr"),
                        name= (string)spec.Attribute("name").Value,
                        code = (string)spec.Attribute("code").Value,
                        descr = (string)spec.Attribute("descr").Value,
                        countObject = checkXMLcount(spec),


        return specs;
    }

    public static string checkXMLcount(XElement x)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(x.Attribute("nbr").Value);
        Console.ReadLine();
        try
        {
            if (x.Attribute("mep_count").Value == null)
            {
                return "False";
            }
            else
            {
                return x.Attribute("mep_count").Value;
            }
        }
        catch
        {
            return "False";
        }
    }

I tested to replace the method with one that only returns and receive string:

public static string checkXMLcount(string x)
{
    Console.WriteLine(x);
    Console.ReadLine();
    return x;

}

I made a XML-file with only one single row. The console prints out the value 15 times. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Solved! No extra method needed:

countObject = spec.Attribute("mep_count") != null ? spec.Attribute("mep_count").Value : "False",