understanding XML::Parser

[rsiedl]

Hi Monks,

I'm trying to wrap my knoggen around XML::Parser and am having no luck so far...

I've been through the perl docs for it but cant understand how to easily use the output from XML::Parser->parse().

I thought I would be able to do something like:

use XML::Parser;
use XML::Parser::EasyTree;
$XML::Parser::EasyTree::Noempty=1;
my $p = new XML::Parser(Style => 'EasyTree');
my $tree = $p->parse($xml);

my $node1 = ${$tree[0]}{name};

but node1 is returning a blank.

The XML i am using for testing is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<search_results count="0">
   <query>"flaherty jm" [ALL-FIELDS]</query>
</search_results>

Could anyone suggest some better reading for me to help me understand how this works?

Cheers,
Reagen

[Thelonius]

When I use strict; I get the error Global symbol "@tree" requires explicit package name. This is a good clue.

When I change

my $node1 = ${$tree[0]}{name};

to

my $node1 = ${$tree->[0]}{name};

everything works.

$tree[0] is the zero'th element of @tree.

$tree->[0] is the zero'th element of tree that is referenced by $tree.

[rsiedl]

Thanks.

Is there an easier way to get a value if I know only the name of the element?

For example: if i want the value of count which resides in search_results?

[Tanktalus]

Based on my XML decision tree, you may want to use a technology that abstracts the XML tree such that it gives you XPath capabilities. I just load the entire XML file into memory, then ask the object to give me the elements that match my criteria.