Can't parse beyond a certain point... HELP!!

Question

Hey folks,
A cute little problem happens to me with a SAX parser:
I have an XML document with a number of "objects" in it. All the objects are made up of the same attributes.
If I parse the whole document and retrieve the values of every element successively (I have re-written the "startElement" and "characters" fonctions), all works fine. I can for example out.print each value in tun.
However, if I wait to be in a particular object (by comparing its value to a know String) to then out.print only its elements values, I can only retrieve the first 2 elements. After this all "characters" method are only passed with a null "ch" (the character array passed on that contains the characters making up the value string of that element).
It is the same for all xml files that I try, so it is definitely not that. And like I said if I retrieve them all in order it works...
here is some code:
(the second check in the if statements is the one that messes the whole thing, if it is not there, they will all print out fine...)
public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length) {
        //depending on which element we are, we update the corresponding variable
        if(name){
            //copy to the name string
            Name=new String(ch,start,length);
            if (Name.compareTo(troopName)==0)
                System.out.println(Name);
            name=false;
        }else if(profile && Name.compareTo(troopName)==0){
            //copy to the profile string
            ProfileStr=new String(ch,start,length);
            System.out.println(ProfileStr);
            profile=false;
//This is the point after which "ch" is always null
        else if(minsquad && Name.compareTo(troopName)==0){
            number=new Integer(new String(ch,start,length));
            minSquad=number.intValue();
            System.out.println(minSquad);
            minsquad=false;
        }else if(maxsquad && Name.compareTo(troopName)==0){
            number=new Integer(new String(ch,start,length));
            maxSquad=number.intValue();
            System.out.println(maxSquad);
            maxsquad=false;
        }else if(weapons && Name.compareTo(troopName)==0){
            //copy to the name string
            Weapons=new String(ch,start,length);
            weapons=false;
        }else if(options && Name.compareTo(troopName)==0){
            //copy to the name string
            Options=new String(ch,start,length);
            System.out.println(Options);
            options=false;
        }else if(specialrules && Name.compareTo(troopName)==0){
            //copy to the name string
            SpecialRules=new String(ch,start,length);
            System.out.println(SpecialRules);
            specialrules=false;
        }else if(maxarmy && Name.compareTo(troopName)==0){
            number=new Integer(new String(ch,start,length));
            maxArmy=number.intValue();
            System.out.println(maxArmy);
            maxarmy=false;
    }I'm puzzled. Anybody?

Answer 1

You are assuming that the characters() method is passed the entire text node every time? That is not necessarily the case, you may get two or more calls which contain pieces of the text node.