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RE: XML to comma or tab separated file

• To: "'Allison Bloodworth'" <abloodworth@b...>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: RE: XML to comma or tab separated file
• From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>
• Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 13:22:13 -0000
• Cc: "'Ahmad Varoqua'" <ahmad.varoqua@c...>
• In-reply-to: <auto-000125899386@c...>
• Thread-index: AcXv18ZsCU492VKZTgG1rQ9e4HFu5gAWMNIg

> We are trying to determine the best way to convert an XML 
> file into a comma
> or tab separated file. 

Since your data is hierarchic rather than flat, and CSV is unsuited to
hierarchic data, one wonders why you are doing this? That's not an idle
question: one can't answer your question without knowing what you are hoping
to achieve.

Some people use multiple delimiters: newline for the records, comma for the
fields, vertical bar for the subfields. Others solve the problem more
elegantly by using XML.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/


The problem is that the XML file 
> contains multiple
> instances of many elements (e.g. there is one Event Title, 
> but many Event
> Sponsors) so it would be hard to do an accurate mapping from 
> field labels to
> the data. E.g., from http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4180.txt: 
> 
>        field_name,field_name,field_name CRLF
>        aaa,bbb,ccc CRLF
>        zzz,yyy,xxx CRLF
> 
> We could calculate the maximum number of each field and use 
> the maximum
> number of each element we found in the field_name line. E.g.
> 
> Event_title, Event_Sponsor_1, Event_Sponsor_2, Event_Sponsor_3,
> Event_Location, etc.
> 
> Aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, eee, ... (for 3 Event Sponsors)
> Aaa, bbb, , , eee, ...		(for 1 Event Sponsor)
> 
> However, I'm thinking that might result in an overly 
> confusing file for
> simpler events.
> 
> Any thoughts on this?
> 
> Allison Bloodworth
> Principal Administrative Analyst
> e-Berkeley Program Office
> University of California, Berkeley
> (415) 377-8243
> abloodworth@b...
> 
> 
> 
> 
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• References:
  • XML to comma or tab separated file
    • From: "Allison Bloodworth" <abloodworth@b...>

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