In Java, how do I parse XML as a String instead of a file?

Question

I have the following code:

DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder().parse(xmlFile);

How can I get it to parse XML contained within a String instead of a file?

Also note that `javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder.parse(string)` assumes the string is a uri (terrible...) — Christophe Roussy, May 09 '16 at 13:44

score 517 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

517

I have this function in my code base, this should work for you.

public static Document loadXMLFromString(String xml) throws Exception
{
    DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
    DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
    InputSource is = new InputSource(new StringReader(xml));
    return builder.parse(is);
}

also see this similar question

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

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answered Feb 18 '09 at 18:10

shsteimer

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@shsteimer I am passing in xml string and it is returning null. It does not throw any exception. What must be wrong? – sattu Jun 28 '13 at 20:47
@sattu: You should post it as a new question. It's really hard to tell without seeing your code. – Alexander Malakhov Jul 11 '13 at 08:02
thanks much, saved me bunch lines of code, i was converting it back to text but I knew there was a better way! – nkuebelbeck Aug 08 '13 at 12:50
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if I have it returns an empty node what can i do? – Dejell Jan 29 '14 at 07:46
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Check that you use the right import statement: `import org.xml.sax.InputSource;` – Daniel Eisenreich Oct 09 '19 at 14:02
For me, parse() takes InputStream, not InputSource – john k May 07 '21 at 19:47
Why is everything in Java so gross? Seriously? – John LaBarge May 03 '22 at 02:57

score 20 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 18 '14 at 09:26

20

One way is to use the version of parse that takes an InputSource rather than a file

A SAX InputSource can be constructed from a Reader object. One Reader object is the StringReader

So something like

parse(new InputSource(new StringReader(myString))) may work.

edited Jun 18 '14 at 09:26

Abimaran Kugathasan

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answered Feb 18 '09 at 17:59

Uri

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score 8 · Answer 3 · edited May 09 '16 at 13:36

8

Convert the string to an InputStream and pass it to DocumentBuilder

final InputStream stream = new ByteArrayInputStream(string.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
DocumentBuilder builder = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder();
builder.parse(stream);

EDIT
In response to bendin's comment regarding encoding, see shsteimer's answer to this question.

edited May 09 '16 at 13:36

Christophe Roussy

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answered Feb 18 '09 at 18:02

Akbar ibrahim

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I'd prefer the StringReader because it avoids String.getBytes(), but this should *usually* work also. – Michael Myers Feb 18 '09 at 18:19
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When you call getBytes(), what encoding are you expecting it to use? How are you telling to the XML parser which encoding it's getting? Do you expect it to guess? What happens when you are on a platform where the default encoding isn't UTF-8? – bendin Feb 18 '09 at 18:38

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 07 '16 at 09:48

I'm using this method

public Document parseXmlFromString(String xmlString){
    DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
    DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
    InputStream inputStream = new    ByteArrayInputStream(xmlString.getBytes());
    org.w3c.dom.Document document = builder.parse(inputStream);
    return document;
}

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 18 '09 at 17:58

5

javadocs show that the parse method is overloaded.

Create a StringStream or InputSource using your string XML and you should be set.

answered Feb 18 '09 at 17:58

duffymo

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 10 '16 at 07:25

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You can use the Scilca XML Progession package available at GitHub.

XMLIterator xi = new VirtualXML.XMLIterator("<xml />");
XMLReader xr = new XMLReader(xi);
Document d = xr.parseDocument();

answered Oct 10 '16 at 07:25

Shukant Pal

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In Java, how do I parse XML as a String instead of a file?

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