Perl XML

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

Hi monks, Is there any way to parse the xml and store the values alone in arrays. For eg ,



<?xml version="1.0"?>
<catalog>
   <book id="bk101">
      <author>Gambardella, Matthew</author>
      <title>XML Developer's Guide</title>
      <genre>Computer</genre>
      <price>44.95</price>
      <publish_date>2000-10-01</publish_date>
      <description>An in-depth look at creating applications 
      with XML.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk102">
      <author>Ralls, Kim</author>
      <title>Midnight Rain</title>
      <genre>Fantasy</genre>
      <price>5.95</price>
      <publish_date>2000-12-16</publish_date>
      <description>A former architect battles corporate zombies, 
      an evil sorceress, and her own childhood to become queen 
      of the world.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk103">
      <author>Corets, Eva</author>
      <title>Maeve Ascendant</title>
      <genre>Fantasy</genre>
      <price>5.95</price>
      <publish_date>2000-11-17</publish_date>
      <description>After the collapse of a nanotechnology 
      society in England, the young survivors lay the 
      foundation for a new society.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk104">
      <author>Corets, Eva</author>
      <title>Oberon's Legacy</title>
      <genre>Fantasy</genre>
      <price>5.95</price>
      <publish_date>2001-03-10</publish_date>
      <description>In post-apocalypse England, the mysterious 
      agent known only as Oberon helps to create a new life 
      for the inhabitants of London. Sequel to Maeve 
      Ascendant.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk105">
      <author>Corets, Eva</author>
      <title>The Sundered Grail</title>
      <genre>Fantasy</genre>
      <price>5.95</price>
      <publish_date>2001-09-10</publish_date>
      <description>The two daughters of Maeve, half-sisters, 
      battle one another for control of England. Sequel to 
      Oberon's Legacy.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk106">
      <author>Randall, Cynthia</author>
      <title>Lover Birds</title>
      <genre>Romance</genre>
      <price>4.95</price>
      <publish_date>2000-09-02</publish_date>
      <description>When Carla meets Paul at an ornithology 
      conference, tempers fly as feathers get ruffled.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk107">
      <author>Thurman, Paula</author>
      <title>Splish Splash</title>
      <genre>Romance</genre>
      <price>4.95</price>
      <publish_date>2000-11-02</publish_date>
      <description>A deep sea diver finds true love twenty 
      thousand leagues beneath the sea.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk108">
      <author>Knorr, Stefan</author>
      <title>Creepy Crawlies</title>
      <genre>Horror</genre>
      <price>4.95</price>
      <publish_date>2000-12-06</publish_date>
      <description>An anthology of horror stories about roaches,
      centipedes, scorpions  and other insects.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk109">
      <author>Kress, Peter</author>
      <title>Paradox Lost</title>
      <genre>Science Fiction</genre>
      <price>6.95</price>
      <publish_date>2000-11-02</publish_date>
      <description>After an inadvertant trip through a Heisenberg
      Uncertainty Device, James Salway discovers the problems 
      of being quantum.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk110">
      <author>O'Brien, Tim</author>
      <title>Microsoft .NET: The Programming Bible</title>
      <genre>Computer</genre>
      <price>36.95</price>
      <publish_date>2000-12-09</publish_date>
      <description>Microsoft's .NET initiative is explored in 
      detail in this deep programmer's reference.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk111">
      <author>O'Brien, Tim</author>
      <title>MSXML3: A Comprehensive Guide</title>
      <genre>Computer</genre>
      <price>36.95</price>
      <publish_date>2000-12-01</publish_date>
      <description>The Microsoft MSXML3 parser is covered in 
      detail, with attention to XML DOM interfaces, XSLT processing, 
      SAX and more.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk112">
      <author>Galos, Mike</author>
      <title>Visual Studio 7: A Comprehensive Guide</title>
      <genre>Computer</genre>
      <price>49.95</price>
      <publish_date>2001-04-16</publish_date>
      <description>Microsoft Visual Studio 7 is explored in depth,
      looking at how Visual Basic, Visual C++, C#, and ASP+ are 
      integrated into a comprehensive development 
      environment.</description>
   </book>
</catalog>
[download]

Now i want to store values alone in arrays,not tags.I know XML::simple,XML::parser module but i dont know exact methodology. Thanks in advance

Comment on Perl XML Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Perl XML by ramrod (Curate) on Aug 13, 2009 at 17:02 UTC
I use XML::LibXML with great results. Try this (untested): `use XML::LibXML; #Parse XML my $template = 'xmldocument.xml'; my $parser = XML::LibXML->new(); my $doc = $parser->parse_file($template); #Find desired node(s) my @nodes= $doc->findnodes("//genre"); #Put results in array my @information; for(@nodes) { my $data = $_->textContent; push (@information,$data); }` [download] This puts the text from all the "genre" nodes into an array.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Perl XML by toolic (Bishop) on Aug 13, 2009 at 18:36 UTC
One good method for parsing XML into Perl arrays is to use XML::Twig handlers. In my opinion, Twig has a better user interface than XML::Parser, and it has an excellent tutorial and documentation. On advantage of Twig over XML::Simple is that it can be used with a larger variety of XML formats. Since you did not specify what data you wanted to go into what arrays, I decided to demonstrate how you could stuff all your data into a single Hash-of-Hashes data structure. Here is a snippet: my %books; my $twig= new XML::Twig( twig_handlers => { book => \&books } ); $twig->parse($xmlStr); print Dumper(\%books); exit; sub books { my ($twig, $book) = @_; my $id = $book->att('id'); $books{$id}{'author' } = $book->first_child('author' ) +->text(); $books{$id}{'title' } = $book->first_child('title' ) +->text(); $books{$id}{'genre' } = $book->first_child('genre' ) +->text(); $books{$id}{'price' } = $book->first_child('price' ) +->text(); $books{$id}{'publish_date' } = $book->first_child('publish_date') +->text(); } [download] Here is the full example: Read more... (7 kB) Here is the output: Read more... (5 kB)	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Perl XML by grantm (Parson) on Aug 14, 2009 at 00:00 UTC
As the author of XML::Simple, I agree with the recommendation of XML::LibXML. In fact I even wrote this article to show how simple it is to use XML::LibXML :-)	[reply]
Re: Perl XML by Jenda (Abbot) on Aug 15, 2009 at 13:20 UTC
Looks like a perfect opportunity for XML::Rules. See a few of the examples Super Search finds here on PerlMonks. Jenda Enoch was right! Enjoy the last years of Rome.	[reply]


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