Which XML Parser Do You Recommend?

tshieh asks: "I'm trying to add XML-configurability to a Java application, and I'm trying to figure out which XML parser I should use. Any thoughts on whether I would be better off using Xerces, expat, XML4J, or JDOM (or any others)? So far, I've decided to use DOM rather than SAX since I've heard that DOM is easier to use and I don't anticipate my configuration file becoming so large that the slower and more memory-intensive DOM parsing becomes an issue."

Comments

SAX or DOM

[geophile]

I've been using Xerces and have had no problems with it. Haven't tried the others.

SAX is really simple to use. You write event handlers, where an event is something like "start of document", "end of foobar tag", etc.

If you can write your application using the SAX event model, then you'd find DOM too complex. DOM is good when you need the entire document as a tree structure, e.g. to do some analysis.

If you use SAX, and you find yourself writing a lot of code to remember what you've seen, then you should probably consider DOM. If you can look at each tag or data item once and then forget about it, SAX is the way to go.

JDOM

[bnenning]

You might want to check out JDOM. It uses the parser of your choice to build a tree structure like DOM, but it has a much simpler API. From their mission page:

There is no compelling reason for a Java API to manipulate XML to be complex, tricky, unintuitive, or a pain in the neck. JDOM is both Java-centric and Java-optimized. It behaves like Java, it uses Java collections, it is completely natural API for current Java developers, and it provides a low-cost entry point for using XML.

We've been using it at work and are happy with it so far.