PHP
XML Parsers
What
is XML?
The XML
language is a way to structure data for sharing across websites.
Several web
technologies like RSS Feeds and Podcasts are written in XML.
XML is easy
to create. It looks a lot like HTML, except that you make up your own tags.
If you want
to learn more about XML, please visit our XML tutorial.
What
is an XML Parser?
To read and
update, create and manipulate an XML document, you will need an XML parser.
In PHP there
are two major types of XML parsers:
Tree-Based
Parsers
Event-Based
Parsers
Tree-Based
Parsers
Tree-based
parsers holds the entire document in Memory and transforms the XML document
into a Tree structure. It analyzes the whole document, and provides access to
the Tree elements (DOM).
This type of
parser is a better option for smaller XML documents, but not for large XML
document as it causes major performance issues.
Example
of tree-based parsers:
SimpleXML
DOM
Event-Based
Parsers
Event-based
parsers do not hold the entire document in Memory, instead, they read in one
node at a time and allow you to interact with in real time. Once you move onto
the next node, the old one is thrown away.
This type of
parser is well suited for large XML documents. It parses faster and consumes
less memory.
Example of event-based
parsers:
XMLReader
XML Expat
Parser
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