XML parsing

[Omar Mohaidat]

Hi all,

I am trying to pars XML file using this import org.w3c.dom.* by this code

            DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
            DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
            Document document = (Document) builder.parse("incomestatements.xml");

but the problem, the value of document variable is null, i don't know why.
my XML file :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<incmstmts>
<stmt>
<year>2005</year>
<revenue>11837</revenue>
<costofrevenue>2239</costofrevenue>
<researchdevelopment>1591</researchdevelopment>
<salesmarketing>2689</salesmarketing>
<generaladmin>661</generaladmin>
<totaloperexpenses>7180</totaloperexpenses>
<operincome>4657</operincome>
<invincome>480</invincome>
<incbeforetaxes>5137</incbeforetaxes>
<taxes>1484</taxes>
<netincome>3653</netincome>
</stmt>

<stmt>
<year>2004</year>
<revenue>10818</revenue>
<costofrevenue>1875</costofrevenue>
<researchdevelopment>1421</researchdevelopment>
<salesmarketing>2122</salesmarketing>
<generaladmin>651</generaladmin>
<totaloperexpenses>6069</totaloperexpenses>
<operincome>4749</operincome>
<invincome>420</invincome>
<incbeforetaxes>5169</incbeforetaxes>
<taxes>1706</taxes>
<netincome>3463</netincome>
</stmt>
</incmstmts>

any help?

[Ram Narayan.M]

Give the absolute full path of the xml file...

[Omar Mohaidat]

Hi Ram,

I set the absolute full path but I got same issue, i think if the problem in the path the exception should be file not found exception.

thanks for your response.

[William Brogden]

the value of document variable is null,

A familiar problem. Consult the table in the org.w3c.dom.Node JavaDocs.

You will see that Document type nodes return null for nodeValue (as for example in a System.out.println statement)

Everybody working with XML DOM methods should become very very familiar with that table.

Bill

[Omar Mohaidat]

A familiar problem. Consult the table in the org.w3c.dom.Node JavaDocs.

You will see that Document type nodes return null for nodeValue (as for example in a System.out.println statement)

Everybody working with XML DOM methods should become very very familiar with that table.

Bill

Thank you for your great comment.

yes, as you said the node name is found and node value is null of document, but is this mean we can't work on document? regarding to XML file, I used this code to get the elements:

DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
Document document = (Document) builder.parse(xmlDocument);

NodeList nodeList = (NodeList) document.getElementById("stmt");
            
if (nodeList != null) {
     System.out.println(nodeList.getLength());
} else {
     System.out.println("nodeList equal null ");
}

nodeList equal null, is this the correct way to get elements?

[Ram Narayan.M]

Since the tags in your xml does not have "id" attribute, getElementById() is not valid... at the same time, it will return an element with the specified "id"... If in need of "stmt" elements list, getElementsByTagName(String tagname) of "Document" class can be used...

[Omar Mohaidat]

yes, I have to use getElementsByTagName(String tagname) method, it is working fine now.

thank you very much

[Ram Narayan.M]

Instead of

 Document document = (Document) builder.parse("incomestatements.xml"); 

You can use parse(File f) method...