RE: Is XSL suitable for batch processing?

> way. Does anyone have any experience of using XSL with large 
> files? Should I
> try the XSL route, or should I limit myself to writing a hook 
> into a SAX
> parser for each bank.

It is quite possible to apply several XSLT transformations in a batch pipeline.  The file based approach means writing each step to a seperate file or -- depending on operating system -- using pipes, but have quite an overhead as currently most XSLT tools read the whole file in as a tree before transformation begins.  This also allows you to mix XSLT processors according to needs.

You may want to look at chaining style-sheets where the data tree has several XSLT transformations applied to it, while being in memory.  This is a non-standard feature that several processors have.

If you choose the first route, you should take great care in investing the memory usage of the process -- you may want to upgrade the computer.  I have found that Xalan (xml.apache.org) uses the least memory on my data.  I have not personally investigated the second route, since we need the intermediate files.

Best regards,
-- 
  Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen   "...and...Tubular Bells!"


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