Accessing attributes in XML::Simple

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

Hi folks, I am having an issue parsing XML using Perl's XML::Simple. The XML file I am parsing is below.... (It's called cars.xml)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
<unsold>
    <car>
       <model>Hyundai</model>
       <mileage>20000</mileage>
    </car>
    <car>
       <model>Jeep</model>
       <mileage>10000</mileage>
    </car>
</unsold>
<footnotes>
    <footnote id = "F1">F1 text</footnote>
    <footnote id = "F2">F2 text</footnote>
</footnotes>
</root>
[download]

Using Data::Dumper on this yields....

$VAR1 = {
          'unsold' => {
                      'car' => [
                               {
                                 'model' => 'Hyundai',
                                 'mileage' => '20000'
                               },
                               {
                                 'model' => 'Jeep',
                                 'mileage' => '10000'
                               }
                             ]
                    },
          'footnotes' => {
                         'footnote' => {
                                       'F2' => {
                                               'content' => 'F2 text'
                                             },
                                       'F1' => {
                                               'content' => 'F1 text'
                                             }
                                     }
                       }
        };
[download]

The script I am using is below....

#!/usr/bin/perl
use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;
$xml = new XML::Simple;
$data = $xml->XMLin("cars.xml", forcearray => ['footnote', 'car', 'id'
+]) or die "Sorry no can do:$!";
#$data = $xml->XMLin("cars.xml") or die "Sorry no can do:$!";
print Dumper($data);
exit;

foreach $e (@{$data->{unsold}{car}})
{
print "$e->{model}";
print "$e->{mileage}";
}
foreach $e (@{$data->{footnotes}})
{
print "$e->{footnote}{content}\n";
}
[download]

Running code yields this....
Hyundai
20000
Jeep
10000
Not an ARRAY reference at ./node_test2.pl line 15

What I like about the above is that referencing model and mileage info is easy using the foreach routine above. What I need to do is to equally access the attributes of "id" and "content" in an equally simple way. Of course I may just need to use something else besides XML::Simple too but I thought I'd see if the monks had any ideas.

Comment on Accessing attributes in XML::Simple Select or Download Code

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Re: Accessing attributes in XML::Simple by ikegami (Patriarch) on Dec 31, 2009 at 20:32 UTC
To use `foreach $e (@{$data->{footnotes}}) { print "$e->{footnote}{content}\n"; }` [download] You'd need to specify `KeyAttr => []`. With the default `KeyAttr => [qw( name key id )]`, the above should be `my $footnotes = $data->{footnotes}{footnote}; foreach my $id (keys %$footnotes) { print "$footnotes->{$id}{content}\n"; }` [download] or `my $footnotes = $data->{footnotes}{footnote}; foreach my $footnote (values %$footnotes) { print "$footnote->{content}\n"; }` [download] Don't forget `ForceArray => [qw( car footnote )]`. XML::Simple is the hardest XML parser to use :( By the way, if you used `GroupTags => { footnotes => 'footnote' }`, you could write `->{footnotes}{footnote}` as just `->{footnotes}`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Accessing attributes in XML::Simple by Jenda (Abbot) on Jan 02, 2010 at 12:48 UTC
Considering the size of XML::Simple's docs (including all those options people tend to babble about as making XML::Simple complex) is about one tenth of the size of say XML::LibXML's (even if we ignore SAX and the fact that you have to learn XPath from some other document), I find your statement fairly ... interesting. XML::Simple is so simple that people tend to forget they have to set the options right. That's its only problem. Other than that for a reasonably designed data-centric XML of reasonable size, it's the easiest. If for no reason than because it doesn't force you to learn yet another set of method names to navigate what's basically just a tree data structure. Jenda Enoch was right! Enjoy the last years of Rome.	[reply]
Re^3: Accessing attributes in XML::Simple by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jan 02, 2010 at 16:42 UTC
See Re^4: The best way to handle different type of XML files (Why I don't think much of XML::Simple) for my reply Considering the size of XML::Simple's docs It provides a lot of functions because it implements the DOM spec. You'll only need a few of them, and they'll be easy to find. (even if we ignore SAX and the fact that you have to learn XPath from some other document), In fact, that's the only thing you need to learn if you're doing data extraction.	[reply]
Re^2: Accessing attributes in XML::Simple by sherab (Scribe) on Jan 05, 2010 at 03:28 UTC
Your example works GREAT for me ikegami. What I'm puzzled by now is how to refer to values of "F1", "F2", etc of the XML. The "id=" portion of the iteration. My apologies but I have been doing this for so long my brain is tapioca.	[reply]
Re^3: Accessing attributes in XML::Simple by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jan 05, 2010 at 03:34 UTC
In the first snippet, `$e->{footnote}{id}` In the second snippet, `$id` In the third snippet, you can't.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Accessing attributes in XML::Simple by sherab (Scribe) on Jan 05, 2010 at 03:36 UTC
Oh Jeeez,... I should probably stop for the night. The answer is "$id". Can't believe I asked the question. Sorry folks!	[reply]
Re: Accessing attributes in XML::Simple by toolic (Bishop) on Dec 31, 2009 at 20:09 UTC
Since you seem open to altenative modules, consider XML::Twig: use strict; use warnings; use XML::Twig; my $xfile = <<EOF; <?xml version="1.0"?> <root> <unsold> <car> <model>Hyundai</model> <mileage>20000</mileage> </car> <car> <model>Jeep</model> <mileage>10000</mileage> </car> </unsold> <footnotes> <footnote id = "F1">F1 text</footnote> <footnote id = "F2">F2 text</footnote> </footnotes> </root> EOF my $t= new XML::Twig(); $t->parse($xfile); for my $car ($t->root()->first_child('unsold')->children('car')) { print $car->first_child('model' )->text(), "\n"; print $car->first_child('mileage')->text(), "\n"; } for my $fnote ($t->root()->first_child('footnotes')->children('footnot +e')) { print $fnote->text(), "\n"; print $fnote->att('id'), "\n"; } __END__ Hyundai 20000 Jeep 10000 F1 text F1 F2 text F2 [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Accessing attributes in XML::Simple by gube (Parson) on Dec 31, 2009 at 20:33 UTC
Hi, You can do in XML Simple itself by passing KeyAttr => 1. Hope using for loop you can take the value of id. #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use XML::Simple; use Data::Dumper; my $xml_simple = XML::Simple->new( KeepRoot => 1, KeyAttr => 1, For +ceArray => 1 ); my $response_hash = eval{ $xml_simple->XMLin( "cars.xml" ) }; print Dumper($response_hash); Output : $VAR1 = { 'root' => [ { 'unsold' => [ { 'car' => [ { 'model' => [ 'Hyundai' ], 'mileage' => [ '20000' ] }, { 'model' => [ 'Jeep' ], 'mileage' => [ '10000' ] } ] } ], 'footnotes' => [ { 'footnote' => [ { 'content' => 'F +1 text', 'id' => 'F1' }, { 'content' => 'F +2 text', 'id' => 'F2' } ] } ] } ] }; [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Accessing attributes in XML::Simple by ikegami (Patriarch) on Dec 31, 2009 at 20:39 UTC
`KeyAttr => 1` is wrong. The value should be an array ref or a hash ref. In this case, you want `KeyAttr => []` `ForceArray => 1` is overkill. `ForceArray => [qw( car footnote )]` would be more appropriate	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Accessing attributes in XML::Simple by gube (Parson) on Dec 31, 2009 at 22:55 UTC
You are right ikegami. If array ref i totally agree to you. Thanks, Gubs	[reply]