Duplicate some parts of XML without rewriting them

Question

I have an XML file with duplicate parts such as:

<argument name="create">
    <argument name="user" type="text"></argument>
    <argument name="password" type="password"></argument>
    (and so on)
</argument>

<argument name="update">
    <argument name="user" type="text"></argument>
    <argument name="password" type="password"></argument>
    (and so on)
</argument>

I would like to have the part between create and update declared once then append it between create and update with a one-liner. This would save me a lot of lines.

Any way to do that in XML?

If you know how to use XSLT, that is likely your answer. However, XSLT is not for the faint of heart. — Display name, May 04 '18 at 20:52
I think you need to use a loop. Maybe this can help: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3462418/standard-for-loops-in-xml?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa — Gabrielė, May 04 '18 at 20:54

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 07 '18 at 14:24

You can use SGML/XML"entities" for that, which can contain replacement text or markup for reuse at multiple places:

<!DOCTYPE arguments [
  <!ENTITY user-and-password
   '<argument name="user" type="text"/>
    <argument name="password" type="password"/>'>
]>
<arguments>
  <argument name="create">
    &user-and-password;
  </argument>
  <argument name="update">
    &user-and-password;
  </argument>
</arguments>

Note that you have to adapt the DOCTYPE: it must match the document element of your XML.

See also XML configuration inheritance, avoid duplications

Duplicate some parts of XML without rewriting them

1 Answers1

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