What does parsing XML mean? [closed]

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Can someone p开发者_Python百科lease explain to me what parsing XML means? And what does an XML parser do in general?

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It means "reading" the XML file/string and getting its content according to the structure, usually to use them in a program.

For example if you have this XML fragment:

<root>
    <node1>value1</node1>
    <node2>value2</node2>
</root>

you may want to use these values in a data structure:

ClassRoot:
    node1: string
    node2: string

so that, in the end:

Object goofy = ClassRoot.new
parse(xml, goofy)
puts(goofy)

yelds something like:

goofy[node1='value1'; node2='value2']

There are many ways of doing so, like DOM or SAX. You might want to investigate XSLT and xpath as well, according to your needs.

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• Google Define

An XML parser is the piece of software that reads XML files and makes the information from those files available to applications and programming languages, usually through a known interface like the DOM

• XML Parsers List

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Usually some information is stored in xml documents. In order to use this information in your program you have to parse it - read line by line or node by node and fetch pieces of information.

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An XML parser converts an XML document into an XML DOM object - which can then be manipulated with a JavaScript.

http://www.w3schools.com/XML/xml_parser.asp

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XML: Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents electronically. It is defined in the produced by the W3C and several other related specifications; all are fee-free open standards.

Parser: a computer program that divides code up into functional components; "compilers must parse source code in order to translate it into object code"