Handling Empty Tags in XML using Sax Parser, Java

Question

I'm Using a Sax parser to handle a pre-written XML file....i have no way of changing the XML as it is held by another application but need to parse data from it. The XML file contains a Tag < ERROR_TEXT/> which is empty when no error is occurred. as a result the parser takes the next character after the tag close which is "\n". I have tried result.replaceAll("\n", ""); and result.replaceAll("\n", "");

how do I get SAX to recognize this is an empty tag and return the value as "" ?

Answer 1

You DO THAT. If you have xml and Java source blow.

<ERROR_TEXT>easy</ERROR_TEXT><ERROR_TEXT/>

Java code

private boolean isKeySet = false;
private String key = "";
@Override
public void characters(
    char[] ch,
    int start,
    int length
) throws SAXException
{
    if (!isKeySet) {
        return;
    }
    isKeySet = false;
    logger.debug("key : [" + key + "], value : [" + value + "]");
}
@Override
public void startElement(
    String uri,
    String localName,
    String qName,
    Attributes attrs
) throws SAXException
{
    key = qName;
    isKeySet = true;
}

@Override
public void endElement(
    String uri,
    String localName,
    String qName
) throws SAXException
{
    if (isKeySet) {
        isKeySet = false;
        logger.debug("key : [" + key + "](EMPTY!!!)");
    }
}

RESULT log:

key : [ERROR_TEXT], value : [easy]

key : [ERROR_TEXT](EMPTY!!!)

Call flow: startElement() -> characters() -> endElement() -> startElement() -> endElement() -> characters()

That's it! THE END

Answer 2

SAXParser returns cDAta through the characters() event which it calls whenever it encounters 'characters' literally. It's pointless to use that function as it is called after every open tag regardless of whether it actually contains any data. You could use String.trim() and do a String.length()>=0 check before proceeding.