Best way to read XML in Java

Question

From some of our other application i am getting XML file.

I want to read that XML file node by node and store node values in database for further use.

So, what is the best way/API to read XML file and retrieve node values using Java?

Answer 1

There are various tools for that. Today, I prefer two:

• Simple XML
• JAXB
• StAX

Here is a good comparison between the Simple and JAXB: http://blog.bdoughan.com/2010/10/how-does-jaxb-compare-to-simple.html

Personally, I like Simple a bit better because support by Niall is excellent but JAXB (as explained in the blog post above) can produce better output with less code.

StAX is a more basic API which allows you to read XML documents that simply don't fit into RAM (neither Simple nor JAXB allow you to read an XML document "object by object" - they will always try to load everything into RAM at once).