in reply to Ordered XML items (XML::Simple?)

At first i thought that simply adding forcearray => 1 would do the trick, but it does not. The problem seems to be in your design. Try something like 

<lists>
<list params="123">First</list>
<list params="456">Second</list>
</lists>
in combination with forcearray => 1. Here is some code to play with: 
use strict;
use warnings;

use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;

$Data::Dumper::Indent = 1;

my $xml = XMLin(\*DATA, forcearray => 1);
print Dumper $xml;


__DATA__
<xml>
<tabs>
<tab name="foo">
<flag name="one" params="123">First</flag>
<list name="two" params="456">Second</list>
<list name="three" params="abc">Third</list>
</tab>
</tabs>
<lists>
<list params="123">First</list>
<list params="456">Second</list>
</lists>
</xml>

[download]
The important output: 

  'lists' => [
    {
      'list' => [
        {
          'params' => '123',
          'content' => 'First'
        },
        {
          'params' => '456',
          'content' => 'Second'
        }
      ]
    }
looks like it preserved the order. :)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: (jeffa) Re: Ordered XML items (XML::Simple?)
by traveler (Parson) on Jan 17, 2003 at 16:55 UTC
    Thanks jeffa. I had tried something similar, but instead of forcearray=>1 I used forecarray['lists']. I could not get it to work. Unfortunately this solution fails on 
    <lists>
<list name="one" params="456">First</list>
<flag name="two" params="123">Second</flag>
<list name="three" params="abc">Third</list>
<lists>

    [download]
    When I tried it like this, it separated the lists and the flag into separate hashes in the array. I want the user to be able to specify any order (and there will be other tags, e.g. entry, title.

    --traveler

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      Looks like the problem is in the design and not the tool. Question: are lists, entries, and titles types of tags, or are they something else? If you want them to be tags, then make them common tags that can have different attributes: 
      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<tags>
<tag type="title" params="blah">Zero</tag>
<tag type="list" params="123">First</tag>
<tag type="entry" params="456">Second</tag>
<tag type="flag" params="123">Third</tag>
</tags>

      [download]
      When run through the same code, this output is generated: 
      $VAR1 = {
  'tags' => [
    {
      'tag' => [
        {
          'params' => 'blah',
          'content' => 'Zero',
          'type' => 'title'
        },
        {
          'params' => '123',
          'content' => 'First',
          'type' => 'list'
        },
        {
          'params' => '456',
          'content' => 'Second',
          'type' => 'entry'
        },
        {
          'params' => '123',
          'content' => 'Third',
          'type' => 'flag'
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
};

      [download]
      There are advantages to both approaches. This approach allows you to preserve the order of your 'tags', but the other approach allows you to drill-down to a specific list of tags in O(1).

      jeffa

      L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
        Thanks, jeffa. I thought I'd tried that, but apparently not exactly that... Anyway, that will work. I'm glad to still be able to use a tool I'm used to. Since this is only parsed once in the application, it is ok to have to dig deeper for the data.

        --traveler

[reply]

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