XML parsing

[Bharat Chatla]

I am trying to parse xml using JDOM and if the tag value is empty it throws null pointer exception even though i check for null value.

code
NodeList description = rootElement.getElementsByTagName("description");
for (int i = 0; i < description.getLength(); i++) {
Element el = (Element)description.item(i);
if(el.getFirstChild().getNodeValue()!=null||!"".equals(el.getFirstChild().getNodeValue()))
{System.out.println("description value"+el.getFirstChild().getNodeValue());}
}


XML:
<programArea>
<byBusinessArea name="Corporate, Investment Banking and Markets">
<description></description>
<country countryName="test">
<program programName="">
<businessArea></businessArea>
<lengthOfProgram></lengthOfProgram>
<briefDesc></briefDesc>
<entryCriteria></entryCriteria>
<nationality></nationality>
<url></url>
</program>
</country>

</byBusinessArea>
</programArea>

please suggest. Also suggest which parser is good one and any sample code for parsing.

[Ulf Dittmer]

You're checking "el.getFirstChild().getNodeValue()" for null, but you're not checking 'el.getFirstChild()" for null. And since "description" has no children, it will be null.

[Bharat Chatla]

I have also tries
if(el.getFirstChild()!=null||!"".equals(el.getFirstChild()))
{System.out.println("description value"+el.getNodeValue());}
}
but it prints description value as null even if description has value.

[Bharat Chatla]

If you can give me some links for more on parsing in terms of code then it will be very nice.thanks a lot.

[Ulf Dittmer]

I'm not sure what you were expecting to get by calling el.getNodeValue(), but I'm not surprised that it's null, since "description" is an element.

If you had "<description>something</description>" and then called "el.getFirstChild().getNodeValue()", I think you might be getting somewhere.