reading an XML file in a C++ program

Question

I'm trying to read an XML file in my C++ program. The XML file looks something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<myprogram>
<configuration>
<window>
<height> 300 </height>
<width> 500 </width>
</window>
</configuration>
</myprogram>

Right now I can look at the XML file and try to read it like this:

ifstream in("mydata.xml");

//ignore the <?xml line
in.ignore(200, '\n');

//i know that the first value i want is the window height so i can ignore <myprogram> <configuration> and <window>

//ignore <myprogram>
in.ignore(200, '\n');

//ignore <configuration>
in.ignore(200, '\n');

//ignore <window>
in.ignore(200, '\n');

string s; int height;

//okay, now i have my height
in >> s >> height;

In general this seems like a bad idea and it really limits how the XML file can be modified. The above solution is very manual and if anything in the XML changes it seems that the entire method of reading it would have to be changed.

Is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

You could use some library that will do it for you. If you are working on Windows platform, you could use MSXML which is part of the system already.

Check this question: Read Write XML File In C++

Other popular libraries: xerces, tinyxml, rapidxml