Home » Tip Bank » XML » XML with Java

Language: Java
Expertise: Intermediate

Oct 7, 2008

This tip shows an example of how to use the Iterator API to read from an XML file:

import javax.xml.stream.*;
import javax.xml.stream.events.*;
import java.io.*;

public class StAXBasicEventReader{
   public StAXBasicEventReader(){}
 
   public static void main(String[] args)
      {
      XMLInputFactory XMLif=null;
      XMLEventReader XMLer=null;
              
      System.setProperty("javax.xml.stream.XMLInputFactory",    
                         "com.sun.xml.stream.ZephyrParserFactory");
      
      //get an XMLInputFactory object
         XMLif=XMLInputFactory.newInstance();
       
      //setting the XMLInputFactory corectly 
        XMLif.setProperty("javax.xml.stream.isSupportingExternalEntities",Boolean.TRUE);
XMLif.setProperty("javax.xml.stream.isNamespaceAware",Boolean.TRUE);
XMLif.setProperty("javax.xml.stream.isReplacingEntityReferences",Boolean.TRUE);
                                    
      //getting an XMLEventReader object
      try{
         XMLer=XMLif.createXMLEventReader( 
         "file:///C://Data_Local//xml//docs//",
         new FileReader("C://Data_local 
         //xml//docs//AirWings_xml.xml"));         
         }catch(java.io.FileNotFoundException e)
            {System.out.println(e.getMessage());
         }catch(javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException e)    
               {System.out.println(e.getMessage());}
                                 
      //getting the events
      try{
         while(XMLer.hasNext())
               {
               XMLEvent event=XMLer.nextEvent();
               //XMLEvent event=(XMLEvent)XMLer.next();
               int event_type=event.getEventType();
               
    switch(event_type)
      {
      case XMLStreamConstants.START_DOCUMENT:
      System.out.println(">Start-Document<"+"Code:"+event_type);
      break;
                         
      case XMLStreamConstants.END_DOCUMENT:
      System.out.println(">End-Document<"+"Code:"+event_type);
      break;
                                                                             
      case XMLStreamConstants.START_ELEMENT:
      System.out.println(">Start-Element<"+"Code:"+event_type);
      break;
                          
      //...
      }                                                                                 
    }
            
    //clean up                
    XMLer.close(); 

    }catch(javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException e)
               {System.out.println(e.getMessage());}          
     }        
}