Help parsing XML

asiufy has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Monks, I've been very happy with XML::Simple, but now I must learn how to tackle XML where the tag order is relevant:

<test id="1">
   <name>Example 1</name>
</test>
<test id="2">
   <name>Example 2</name>
</test>
<test id="yo">
   <name>Example 3</name>
</test>
[download]

As all of you know, XML::Simple won't return the structure in the exact same way as the original XML structure.

What should I use them? I've looked at a bunch of other XML parsers, and I didn't like any of them.

I'd rather use something tree (non-event) based, as this is how XML::Simple operates, and since I need quick access to the data in the XML tags, I don't want to mess with handlers and stuff like that, unless absolutely necessary, of course.

Any pointers, preferably with meaningful tutorials?

Thanks.

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Re: Help parsing XML (boo) by boo_radley (Parson) on Jan 29, 2002 at 01:54 UTC
xml::twig is a good bet, and not just because the author's a monk.	[reply]
Re: Help parsing XML by ferrency (Deacon) on Jan 29, 2002 at 02:24 UTC
I agree with the XML::Twig suggestion. You can use XML::Twig in tree-mode style or event-mode style. I first started using it tree-mode but quickly realized that event-mode made at least as much sense for my own application. If you're using this in a persistant situation, where one perl interpreter will be parsing Many XML documents before dying, be aware that older versions of XML::Twig had a memory leak associated with circular references in internal perl structures. This is fixed in the latest stable version if you have WeakRef installed, and there's a workaround available on the XML::Twig website if you need to use an older version. Have fun, Alan	[reply]
Re: Help parsing XML by krujos (Curate) on Jan 29, 2002 at 04:24 UTC
As icky as it is XML::DOM provides two really nice parsers. if you need to validate XML::DOM::ValParser is a champ. Both can be even based or tree based. Once you figure it out wading through the structure isnt too bad either. There is a decent review / examples at xml.com good luck	[reply]
Re: Help parsing XML by mirod (Canon) on Jan 31, 2002 at 09:40 UTC
If you need tutorials you can have a look at Kip Hampton's excellent column on XML.com which goes through most of what you can do with Perl and XML. I have a tutorial that gives example with a bunch of XML::Parser based modules, Finally if you want to go the DOM route, there is a new implementation, based on GDOME: XML::GDOME, and I have a helper module in the works, that mostly offers safer navigation: XML::DOM::Twig (it is in alpha mode but the interface should not change, it is just interesting bits of the XML::Twig one layered over the DOM).	[reply]
Re: Help parsing XML by Matts (Deacon) on Feb 01, 2002 at 23:30 UTC
How about XML::XPath? It allows you to go: `my @test_nodes = $doc->findnodes('//test');` [download] Of course you have to grok XPath, but for the easy stuff it's just Unix directory paths and a bit more.	[reply] [d/l]