How can I convert the xml to a string?

[Leo Tien]

Thanks.

[Lasse Koskela]

This is a FAQ. You'll find several answers if you do a search on this forum for "xml string"...

[Leo Tien]

Hi, Lasse:
I'v seen the topics from the search results, but none is I want.
I want use such as Xalan and XSL to convert a XML file to a String. e.g., a XML file have a tag named A and it's text value is a and have a tag named B and it's text value is b.

 
<A>a</A>
<B>b</B> 

Now, I want to convert it to "ab" String, how should I do?
Thanks.

[cyril vidal]

Sorry for the two precedent messages...
With XSLT, it is not difficult to get the values of all child elements:

 
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"     xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*">
   <xsl:value-of select="."/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
 

As another solution, you may want to use SAX and just use the characters() method, like this:

public void characters(char[] ch,
                       int start,
                       int length)
                   throws SAXException  {

                                   System.out.println(new String(ch, 
                                    start, 
                                    length));
   }
  

A complete program to do this may be the following (just compile it and run it with xerces in your classpath):

import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;
import org.xml.sax.XMLReader;
import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
import org.xml.sax.SAXParseException;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
public class CharacterReader 
                    extends DefaultHandler
{
   
public void error (SAXParseException e) {
      System.out.println("Error parsing the file: "+e.getMessage());
   }
   public void warning (SAXParseException e) {
      System.out.println("Problem parsing the file: "+e.getMessage());
   }
   public void fatalError (SAXParseException e) {
      System.out.println("Error parsing the file: "+e.getMessage());
      System.out.println("Cannot continue.");
      System.exit(1);
   }
 
public void characters(char[] ch,
                       int start,
                       int length)
                   throws SAXException  {
      
      System.out.println(new String(ch, 
                                    start, 
                                    length));
   }

   public static void main (String args[]) {
      
      XMLReader xmlReader = null;
      
      try {
         SAXParserFactory spfactory = 
             SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
 spfactory.setValidating(false);
         
         SAXParser saxParser = 
                   spfactory.newSAXParser();
         xmlReader = saxParser.getXMLReader();
 xmlReader.setContentHandler(new SurveyReader());
xmlReader.setErrorHandler(new SurveyReader());

 InputSource source = new InputSource("yourFile.xml");
 xmlReader.parse(source);
 
      } catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println(e);
            System.exit(1);
      }
   }
}


  

Hoe this helps,
Cyril.

[Lasse Koskela]

Cyril, I deleted the two posts for you. In the future, you can do it from the "edit/delete" view...