Parsing an XML datastructure

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

Hello,
I posted a message a little while ago about a problem I was having with a CSV file... well i've given up on that one and i'm trying to read the XML file which has also been provided. I have used XML::Simple.pm, but that has given me a confusing datastructure, containing the following:


use XML::Simple;

my $xml = XMLin($xmlfile);

my @items = @{$xml->{Item}};
print "Contains: ".Dumper(@items);
[download]

This outputs the following...

$VAR1 = {
          'Price' => '24.9899997711',
          'SmallImageURL' => 'http://images.iwoot.com/thumbs/20qpuz_th
+u.jpg',
        };
$VAR2 = {
          'Price' => '24.9899997711',
          'SmallImageURL' => 'http://images.iwoot.com/thumbs/8bunju_th
+u.jpg',
        };
$VAR3 = {
          'Price' => '24.9899997711',
          'SmallImageURL' => 'http://images.iwoot.com/thumbs/DISRIF_th
+u.gif',
        };
[download]

etc... can anyone just post up a bit of code to explain how I can read each of the values? Sorry its a dump question, but atleast I should be able to get this to work I hope ;-)

Thanks, Tom

Comment on Parsing an XML datastructure Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Parsing an XML datastructure by existem (Sexton) on Dec 14, 2004 at 12:56 UTC
Before I loose any more reputation (whatever that is) here is my solution I worked out all by myself - talk about stupid - what a muppet! ;-) `#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w use XML::Simple; my $xml = XMLin($xmlsource); my @items = @{$xml->{Item}}; foreach my $item (@items) { print "$item->{ProductType}<br/>"; } # prints out all the item names` [download] Thanks, Tom	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Parsing an XML datastructure by zejames (Hermit) on Dec 14, 2004 at 12:58 UTC
Scalars in your `@items` array are hash references. Data can be accessed with : `my $ref = shift @items; # print 'http://images.iwoot.com/thumbs/20qpuz_th print $ref->{'SmallImageURL'};` [download] Here you dereference $ref with `->`, and then say that the referenced object is a hash, by using `->{..}`. You can do the same with each value of your array. HTH -- zejames	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Parsing an XML datastructure by Animator (Hermit) on Dec 14, 2004 at 15:39 UTC
You might want to take a close look at all the options that are available with XML::Simple... It's a powerfull module which can create a datastrcuture which is very close to your needs, that is if you use the correct options... Given that you refer to 'ProductType' in your second post it makes me guess that ProductType is the id of each element and that a hash might be better for your needs...	[reply]
Re: Parsing an XML datastructure by knoebi (Friar) on Dec 14, 2004 at 17:30 UTC
If you have to work with XML in perl I highly suggest that you give XML::SimpleObject::LibXML a try. Its far more flexible than XML::Simple and still very easy to use. I built during the last months quite a big project on XML::SimpleObject::LibXML and it runs very well. ciao, knoebi	[reply]


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