Hello again everyone,

Been a long time since my last post, but I am really stuck this time, and can't figure why.

I am using XML::Parser to parse .RSS documents from Linux.com and Newsforge.net for a "live news feed" if you will. First, below is a snippet from Linux.com's RSS doc:

<item>
<title>Big software companies lose their minds!</title>
<link>http://linux.com/newsitem.phtml?sid=1&amp;aid=12492</link>
<description>Linux.com corresponent Mark Miller has some
views on big software companies.</description>
</item>

[download]

Now, if you look at the <link> tag, you see that there is a proper sequence, &amp; to represent an ampersand. However, here is the problem. When XML::Parser encounters this chunk of data, it calls the Char handler, whatever you define it to be. Mine happens to be very simple, atleast right now (BTW, I am using the Subs style for the parser, but tha shouldn't matter):

sub found_char {
my ($ex, $str) = @_;
if ($ex->in_element('link') &&
      $ex->within_element('item')) {
 print "\t\tLink: $str\n";
}
}

[download]

So I should expect a simple string that has Link: and then the link, whatever that may be. However, it seems that XML::Parser instead, for some reason, splits on that escape sequence, so I get this output:

Link: http://linux.com/newsitem.phtml?sid=1
Link: &
Link: aid=12492

[download]

What I CANNOT figure out is why it seems to consider that string within the <link> element three strings!

Does anyone know how this can be fixed - I have seen this problem happen with other "non-element" data, and I just want it to grab all of the pertient data at one time.

Thanks a ton!

r. j o s e p h
"Violence is a last resort of the incompetent" - Salvor Hardin, Foundation by Issac Asimov

In reply to XML::Parser breaks on by r.joseph

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