XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a widely-used language for representing structured data in a human-readable format. It provides a standardized way to store and exchange data between different systems. In this blog post, we will explore the basics of XML and the Java DOM Parser, which is a widely-used library for parsing and manipulating XML documents.
Table of Contents
- What is XML?
- XML Syntax
- Introduction to DOM Parser
- Parsing XML using Java DOM Parser
- Modifying XML using Java DOM Parser
- Conclusion
What is XML?
XML is a markup language that defines rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. It allows users to define their own custom elements and attributes, making it highly flexible for representing structured data.
In XML, data is enclosed within opening and closing tags, similar to HTML. For example:
<book>
<title>Java Programming</title>
<author>John Doe</author>
<year>2021</year>
</book>
XML Syntax
Here are some key syntax rules to remember when working with XML:
- XML documents must have a root element.
- Elements must be properly nested and closed.
- Attribute values must be enclosed in quotes.
- XML tags are case-sensitive.
- Special characters like
<
,>
,&
, and"
must be escaped using entity references.
Introduction to DOM Parser
The Document Object Model (DOM) is a platform-independent and language-independent interface for accessing and manipulating XML documents. It represents the XML document as a tree-like structure, where each node in the tree represents an element, attribute, or text value.
Java DOM Parser provides a set of classes and methods for parsing and manipulating XML using DOM. It allows developers to create, read, update, and delete XML nodes in a hierarchical manner.
Parsing XML using Java DOM Parser
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