There's an anti-buzzword backlash against XML floating around, which is a natural reaction to something that's been hyped so much by marketers.

But after all the smoke clears, it's pretty hard to beat the simplicity of using XML::Simple's XMLin() and XMLout() functions.

CSV files combined with while (<IN>) {...} logic has old-school appeal, but in the end, it's irritating and tedious. There's so many exceptions to be handled, like data that splits over lines, or data that contains the delimiter as part of the data, etc, and it's not as flexible as XML when you have to add new variables.


In reply to xml vs flat files by waxmop
in thread best way to change xml record using XML::Simple? by waxmop

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.