SAX Parser throws NullPointerException

Hi.
I'm using WLS6.1 SP1 built-in XML SAX parser. The code is like,
SAXParserFactory factory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
XMLReader parser = factory.newSAXParser().getXMLReader();
// Add a error handler
eh = new MyErrorHandler();
parser.setErrorHandler(eh);
parser.setContentHandler(this);
// Enable namespace
parser.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/namespaces", true);
// Enable validation
parser.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/validation", false);
parser.parse(new InputSource(in));
The NullPointerException is thrown at -
org.apache.xerces.framework.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:965)
after the end element of (</eb:MessageHeader>) before the start element of <SOAP-ENV:Header>.
The XML file is attached.
=====================================
However, I tried to parse this document on xerces parser 131.
It worked fine.
=====================================
Did I miss any thing? It seems like a bug to me.
Thanks!
[header.xml]

SAX should mask the fact that some content is specified inside of a CDATA section.. It is just characters.
The safest way to process characters is to setup a StringBuffer or equivalent in the startElement method. There is a variation of the StringBuffer append method that has the same three parameters (char[], int, int) as the characters signature. The characters method may be called many times before you are given all of the content of the string. How it decides when to call you depends on the parser and is subject to change over time. But, if you accumulate the contents in each call of characters and do the toString() in the endElement method you are going to get the right content. Lots of people over the last year or so that I've been involved in this forum have had other ways they thought were better than this, but most of them have eventually tried and accepted this way because it works and their "better" way did not.
It looks like you got the content for the CDATA section (Please refer...).I'm not sure what your problem is.
Dave Patterson

Similar Messages

Why XMLReader.parse() throws NullPointerException ? [ sax xerces ]

Hi, I have a thread that get xml text from a document and parse it. When i type *<?xml* or i delete *<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>* until *<?xml version="1.0 >* i get this Nullexception:
Exception in thread "Thread-5" java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLEntityScanner.scanChar(XMLEntityScanner.java:533)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLVersionDetector.determineDocVersion(XMLVersionDetector.java:219)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:772)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:737)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:119)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(AbstractSAXParser.java:1205)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(SAXParserImpl.java:522)
at TA.S$C7.run(S.java:94)
Here is the code:
@Override public void run()
{while(true)
{while((doc.getLength()==0)||(ao1==false))
{try {this.sleep(500);}
catch (InterruptedException ex){}
try
{try
{if(ao1) {text=this.doc.getText(0,doc.getLength()); reader = new StringReader(text); source = new InputSource(reader); source.setSystemId("StringReader"); }
} catch (BadLocationException ex){}
if(ao1) xmlReader.parse(source); //*THIS GENERATE java.lang.NullPointerException*
}//error here
catch (IOException ex) {}
catch (SAXException ex){System.out.println("Error: "+ex.toString());}
try {this.sleep(2000);}catch (InterruptedException ex) {}
Thanks

I can't understand what typing or deleting has to do with anything; the parser is parsing a document, isn't it? Unless it's parsing from System.in and you're typing the document into the console, which doesn't seem likely based on what you posted.
However this
<?xml version="1.0 >{code}
isn't a well-formed prolog. There's a missing closing quote on the version attribute. I still wouldn't have expected a NPE, but then you haven't posted much of an example. There's some unformatted code (try posting it inside {code} tags to make it readable) and you don't show an example of a document which causes the exception. Just some stuff about typing and deleting.

Sax parser problem

hi,
i am assuming the problem is with sax parser but i cant be sure. I am parsing a xml file (about 1.4MB) with some data in it. the parser i have created reads the xml file correctly for the most part but when at some point the
"public void characters(char buf[], int offset, int len) throws SAXException"
function stops working correctly....i.e it doesnt fully read read the data between the "<start>" and "</start>" element. say it reads about 100 id's correctly---for 101 ID it does this. This is just an example. Since, the problem might be with how :
"public void characters(char buf[], int offset, int len) throws SAXException"
function is reading the data i was wondering if anybody else had encountered this problem or please let me know if i need to change something in the code: here's a part of the code :
Bascially i have created three classes to enter data into three mysql tables and as i parse the data i fill up the columns by matching the column header with the tagName.
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.lang.Object;
import org.xml.sax.*;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;
import java.util.*;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;
import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser;
public class Echo03 extends DefaultHandler
StringBuffer textBuffer;
int issuedValue, prodValue;
OrdHeader header = new OrdHeader();
OrdDetail detail = new OrdDetail();
Member memInfo = new Member();
//new addition to store the dynamic value of the products
TestOrdheader prod = new TestOrdheader();
int counter;
String tag, newTag;
SetValue setVal = new SetValue();
String test;
public static void main(String argv[])
if (argv.length != 1) {
System.err.println("Usage: cmd filename");
System.exit(1);
// Use an instance of ourselves as the SAX event handler
DefaultHandler handler = new Echo03();
// Use the default (non-validating) parser
SAXParserFactory factory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
try {
// Set up output stream
out = new OutputStreamWriter(System.out, "UTF8");
// Parse the input
SAXParser saxParser = factory.newSAXParser();
saxParser.parse( new File(argv[0]), handler);
} catch (Throwable t) {
t.printStackTrace();
System.exit(0);
static private Writer out;
private String indentString = " "; // Amount to indent
private int indentLevel = 0;
//===========================================================
// SAX DocumentHandler methods
//===========================================================
public void startDocument()
throws SAXException
nl();
nl();
emit("START DOCUMENT");
nl();
emit("<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>");
header.assign();
public void endDocument()
throws SAXException
nl(); emit("END DOCUMENT");
try {
nl();
out.flush();
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new SAXException("I/O error", e);
public void startElement(String namespaceURI,
String lName, // local name
String qName, // qualified name
Attributes attrs)
throws SAXException
indentLevel++;
nl(); //emit("ELEMENT: ");
String eName = lName; // element name
if ("".equals(eName)) eName = qName; // namespaceAware = false
if (qName.equals("Billing")){
issuedValue = 1;
}else if (qName.equals("Shipping")){
issuedValue = 2;
}else if (qName.equals("ShippingTotal")){
issuedValue = 3;
//check to see if "Product" is the name of the element thats coming next
if (qName.equals("Product")){
if (issuedValue != 3){
prodValue = 1;
prod.addCounter();
}else{
prodValue = 0;
tag = eName;
if (attrs != null) {
for (int i = 0; i < attrs.getLength(); i++) {
String aName = attrs.getLocalName(i); // Attr name
if ("".equals(aName)) aName = attrs.getQName(i);
nl();
emit(" ATTR: ");
emit(aName);
emit("\t\"");
emit(attrs.getValue(i));
emit("\"");
if (attrs.getLength() > 0) nl();
public void endElement(String namespaceURI,
String sName, // simple name
String qName // qualified name
throws SAXException
nl();
String eName = sName; // element name
if ("".equals(eName)){
eName = qName; // not namespaceAware
if ("Order".equals(eName)){
//enter into database
     databaseEnter();
textBuffer = null;
indentLevel--;
public void characters(char buf[], int offset, int len)
throws SAXException
nl();
try {
String s = new String(buf, offset, len);
if (!s.trim().equals("")){
settag(tag, s);
s = null;
}catch (NullPointerException E){
System.out.println("Null pointer Exception:"+E);
//===========================================================
// Utility Methods ...
//===========================================================
// Wrap I/O exceptions in SAX exceptions, to
// suit handler signature requirements
private void emit(String s)
throws SAXException
try {
out.write(s);
out.flush();
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new SAXException("I/O error", e);
// Start a new line
// and indent the next line appropriately
private void nl()
throws SAXException
String lineEnd = System.getProperty("line.separator");
try {
out.write(lineEnd);
for (int i=0; i < indentLevel; i++) out.write(indentString);
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new SAXException("I/O error", e);
===================================================================
///User defined methods
===================================================================
private String strsplit(String splitstr){
String delimiter = new String("=");
String[] value = splitstr.split(delimiter);
value[1] = value[1].replace(':', ' ');
return value[1];
public void settag(String tag, String s){
String pp_transid = null, pp_respmsg = null,pp_authid = null, pp_avs = null, pp_avszip = null;
if ((tag.equals("OrderDate")) || (tag.equals("OrderProcessingInfo"))){
if (tag.equals("OrderDate")){
StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(s);
String orddate = st.nextToken();
String ordtime = st.nextToken();
header.put("ordDate", orddate);
header.put("ordTime", ordtime);
}else if (tag.equals("OrderProcessingInfo")){
StringTokenizer st1 = new StringTokenizer(s);
int tokenCount = 1;
while (tokenCount <= st1.countTokens()){
switch(tokenCount){
case 1:
String extra = st1.nextToken();
break;
case 2:
String Opp_transid = st1.nextToken();
pp_transid = strsplit(Opp_transid);
break;
case 3:
String Opp_respmsg = st1.nextToken();
pp_respmsg = strsplit(Opp_respmsg);
break;
case 4:
String Opp_authid = st1.nextToken();
pp_authid = strsplit(Opp_authid);
break;
case 5:
String Opp_avs = st1.nextToken();
pp_avs = strsplit(Opp_avs);
break;
case 6:
String Opp_avszip = st1.nextToken();
pp_avszip = strsplit(Opp_avszip);
break;
tokenCount++;
header.put("pp_transid", pp_transid);
header.put("pp_respmsg", pp_respmsg);
header.put("pp_authid", pp_authid);
header.put("pp_avs", pp_avs);
header.put("pp_avszip", pp_avszip);
}else{
newTag = new String(setVal.set_name(tag, issuedValue));
header.put(newTag, s);
//detail.put(newTag, s);
prod.put(newTag, s);
memInfo.put(newTag,s);
//Check to see-- if we should add this product to the database or not
boolean check = prod.checkValid(newTag, prodValue);
if (check){
prod.addValues(s);
setVal.clearMod();
==================================================================
Here's the error that i get:
java.util.NoSuchElementException
at org.apache.crimson.parser.Parser2.parseInternal(Parser2.java:691)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.Parser2.parse(Parser2.java:337)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.XMLReaderImpl.parse(XMLReaderImpl.java:448)
at javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser.parse(SAXParser.java:345)
at javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser.parse(SAXParser.java:281)
at Echo03.main(Echo03.java:47)

I haven't gone through your code but I also had a similar error....and the exception in my was because of an "&" instead of the entity reference & in one of the element values. I use a non-validating parser but if you use a validating one then this might not be the reason for your exception.

How to deal with empty tags in a SAX Parser

Hi,
I hope someone can help me with the problem I am having!
Basically, I have written an xml-editor application. When an XML file is selected, I parse the file with a SAX parser and save the start and end locations of all the tags and character data. This enables me to display the xml file with the tags all nicely formatted with pretty colours. Truly it is a Joy To Behold. However, I have a problem with tags in this form:
<package name="boo"/>
because the SAX parser treats them like this:
<package name = boo>
</package>
for various complex reasons the latter is unaccetable so my question is: Is there some fiendishly clever method to detect tags of this type as they occur, so that I can treat them accordingly?
Thanks,
Chris

I have spent some time on googling for code doing this, but found nothing better, than I had to write in by myself.
So, it would be something like this. Enjoy :)
package comd;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
import java.util.Stack;
import java.util.Enumeration;
public class EmptyTagsHandler extends DefaultHandler {
     private StringBuilder xmlBuilder;
     private Stack<XmlElement> elementStack;
     private String processedXml;
     private class XmlElement{
          private String name;
          private boolean isEmpty = true;
          public XmlElement(String name) {
               this.name = name;
          public void setNotEmpty(){
               isEmpty = false;
     public EmptyTagsHandler(){
          xmlBuilder = new StringBuilder();
          elementStack = new Stack();
     private String getElementXPath(){
          StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
          for (Enumeration en=elementStack.elements();en.hasMoreElements();){
               builder.append(en.nextElement());
               builder.append("/");
          return builder.toString();
     public String getXml(){
          return processedXml;
     public void startDocument() throws SAXException {
          xmlBuilder = new StringBuilder();
          elementStack.clear();
          processedXml = null;
     public void endDocument() throws SAXException {
          processedXml = xmlBuilder.toString();
     public void startElement(String uri, String localName, String qName, Attributes attributes) throws SAXException {
          if (!elementStack.empty()) {
               XmlElement elem = elementStack.peek();
               elem.setNotEmpty();
          xmlBuilder.append("<");
          xmlBuilder.append(qName);
          for (int i=0; i<attributes.getLength();i++){
               xmlBuilder.append(" ");
               xmlBuilder.append(attributes.getQName(i));
               xmlBuilder.append("=");
               xmlBuilder.append(attributes.getValue(i));
          xmlBuilder.append(">");
          elementStack.push(new XmlElement(qName));
     public void endElement(String uri, String localName, String qName) throws SAXException {
          XmlElement elem = elementStack.peek();
          if (elem.isEmpty) {
               xmlBuilder.insert(xmlBuilder.length()-1, "/");
          } else {
               xmlBuilder.append("</");
               xmlBuilder.append(qName);
               xmlBuilder.append(">");
          elementStack.pop();
     public void characters(char ch[], int start, int length) throws SAXException {
          if (!elementStack.empty()) {
               XmlElement elem = elementStack.peek();
               elem.setNotEmpty();
          String str = new String(ch, start, length);
          xmlBuilder.append(str);
     public void ignorableWhitespace(char ch[], int start, int length) throws SAXException {
          String str = new String(ch, start, length);
          xmlBuilder.append(str);
}

XML - SAX Parsing Question

Hi,
I am parsing XML using SAX parser and fill the values into the HashTable ( like Key value pair ).. so i can get the vaues for a particular key using hash get function.
For the following XML. There are 2 "subscriberNumber" attribute, one is under "sn:Subscriber" and the another is under "sn:SubscriberChange".
I can able to put this values in hash table and when i print the Hash table it is printing as sn:subscriberNumber=[1234567890, 1234567890] .. But how will i know which one is from "sn:Subscriber" and which is from "sn:SubscriberChange"
This is the XML :
<sn:SubscriberNotification>
<sn:notificationSubType>1120</sn:notificationSubType>
<sn:Subscriber>
     <cng:PaymentType>PostPaid</cng:PaymentType>
     <sn:subscriberNumber>1234567890</sn:subscriberNumber>
</sn:Subscriber>
<sn:SubscriberChange>
     <sn:subscriberNumber>1234567890</sn:subscriberNumber>
</sn:SubscriberChange>
</sn:SubscriberNotification>
Any suggestion and pointers are really helpful
Thanks,
-Raj..

Try something like this:
import java.util.Stack;
import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;
class MyHandler extends DefaultHandler {
    Stack openTags = new Stack();
    public void startElement(String uri, String localName, String qName, Attributes attributes) throws SAXException {
        if (qName.equals("sn:subscriberNumber")) {
            String parentTag = (String)openTags.peek();
            System.out.println("Parent tag of this <sn:subscriberNumber> is : <" + parentTag + ">");
        openTags.push(qName);
    public void endElement(String uri, String localName, String qName) throws SAXException {
        openTags.pop();
}Regards

Why are all the events in the XML SAX parser not activated?

Hi everyone,
I have written a mini server that parses XML files into SQL queries.
Below is a segment of my code;
          try          {
               Class.forName( JDBC_DRIVER );
               myConnection = DriverManager.getConnection( DATABASE_URL, "username", "password");
               EventXMLParser myEXP = new EventXMLParser(directory, myConnection);
               File[] xmlFiles = directory.listFiles();
               for (File xmlFile : xmlFiles)               {
                    myEXP.XMLtoDB(xmlFile);
                    outWriter.println("File:" + xmlFile.getName() + " DONE");
          } catch (SQLException e)     {
               System.err.println("SQLException for establishing connection");
               e.printStackTrace();
          } catch (ClassNotFoundException e)     {
               System.err.println("CLASS NOT FOUND EXCEPTION HERE");
               e.printStackTrace();
          } catch (Exception e)     {
               System.err.println(e);
               e.printStackTrace();
          finally {
               outWriter.println("PARSING COMPLETED");
               outWriter.close();
     }Where the constructor EventXMLParser constructs the following:
     public EventXMLParser(File path, Connection connection)     {
          super();
          try     {
               this.XMLpath = path;
               this.db_connection = connection;
               this.xr = XMLReaderFactory.createXMLReader();
               this.XMLSAXhandler = new DefaultHandler(); //create a new own handler
               this.xr.setContentHandler(XMLSAXhandler);
               this.xr.setErrorHandler(XMLSAXhandler);
               //System.out.println("DEBUG: db_connection is " + db_connection.toString());
          catch (Exception e)     {
               System.out.println("Constructor Error!");
               e.printStackTrace();
     }Below are all my helper methods within EventXMLParser.java
     public void XMLtoDB(String XMLpath) throws Exception {
          try     {
               //Input
               System.out.println("XMLpath is : " + XMLpath);
               /*FileReader r = new FileReader(XMLpath); debug
               InputSource in = new InputSource(r);
               xr.parse(in);
               xr.parse(XMLpath);
               /* Note that while parsing, the end of each event, </event>
                * will trigger sendSQL to execute the query on the database
          catch (Exception e)     {
               throw new Exception("Error with XMLtoDB!! Exception: " + e);
     public void sendSQL(Event event, Connection sql_connection) throws SQLException     {
               //JDBC part
               try     {
                    System.err.println("DEBUG sendSQL");
                    Statement sql_statement = sql_connection.createStatement();
                    ResultSet resultSet = sql_statement.executeQuery( event.toSQL() );
               catch (SQLException e)     {
                    e.printStackTrace();
     /* Parsing XML
      * From here onwards it's all designed for the SAX Parsing with different event calling methods
     public void startDocument()     {
          System.err.println("Start Document");
     public void endDocument()     {
          System.err.println("End Document");
     public void startElement(String uri, String name, String qName, Attributes atts)     {
          CurrentElement= name;
          System.out.println("This is parsing");
     public void characters(char ch[], int start, int length)     {
          SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss");
          StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
          for (int i = start; i < start + length; i++)
               sb.append(ch);
          String content = sb.toString();
          if (CurrentElement.equals("eid"))
               temp.setEventID( (Integer.valueOf(content)).intValue() ) ;
          else if (CurrentElement.equals("sd"))
               temp.setShort_description(content);
          else if (CurrentElement.equals("ld"))
               temp.setLong_description(content);
          else if ( (CurrentElement.equals("dt")))
               temp.setDate_Time( formatter.parse(content, new ParsePosition(0)) );
          else if (CurrentElement.equals("repeat"))
               temp.setRepeat_pattern( (Integer.valueOf(content)).intValue() );
          else if (CurrentElement.equals("valid"))
               temp.setValid_period(content);
          else if (CurrentElement.equals("status"))     {
               temp.setStatus( (Integer.valueOf(content)).intValue() );
          else {}
     public void endElement(String uri, String name, String qName)     {
          System.err.println("DEBUG" + temp.toString()); /*debug*/
          if (name.equals("event"))     {
               try     {
                    /*debug*/ temp.setUserID(1);
                    /*debug*/ System.err.println("DEBUG: " + temp.toString());
                    sendSQL(temp, db_connection);
                    //temp = new Event();
               catch (SQLException e)     {
                    System.err.println(e);
               }//end catch
          }//end try
Where event is a public class Event     {
     //fields
     private int userID = 1; // = 1 only applies for testing
     private int eventID;
     private String short_description;
     private String long_description;
     private Date date_time = null;
     private int repeat_pattern;
     private String valid_period;
     private int status;     //1 for new, 0 for modification and -1 for delete
     SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss");
     //Constructors
     //every event requires the following: userID eventID and short_Description
     public Event(int uID, int eID, String shortDescrp)     {
          setUserID(uID);
          setEventID(eID);
          setShort_description(shortDescrp);
     public Event(int uid, int eid, String sd,
                              String ld, Date d_t, int r_p, String v_p, int s)     {
          setUserID(uid);
          setEventID(eid);
          setShort_description(sd);
          setLong_description(ld);
          setDate_Time(d_t);
          setRepeat_pattern(r_p);
          setValid_period(v_p);
          setStatus(s);
     //set
     public void setUserID (int x)                         { this.userID = x ;}
     public void setEventID (int x)                         { this.eventID = x ;}
     public void setShort_description (String x)          { this.short_description = x ;}
     public void setLong_description (String x)          { this.long_description = x ;}
     public void setDate_Time(Date x)                    { this.date_time = x ;}
     public void setRepeat_pattern (int x)               { this.repeat_pattern = x ;}
     public void setValid_period (String x)               { this.valid_period = x ;}
     public void setStatus (int x)                         { this.status = x; }
     //get
     public int           getUserID()                              { return this.userID;}
     public int           getEventID()                         { return this.eventID;}
     public String      getShort_description()               { return this.short_description;}
     public String      getLong_description()               { return this.long_description;}
     public Date        getDate_Time()                         { return this.date_time;}
     public int         getRepeat_pattern()                    { return this.repeat_pattern;}
     public String      getValid_period()                    { return this.valid_period;}
     public int           getStatus()                              { return this.status; }
     //Event to SQL statements;
     public String toSQL()     {
          StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
          ///if ( status == 1)     {
               sb.append( "INSERT INTO events SET" );
               sb.append( " userID = " + userID + ", ");
               sb.append( "eventID = " + eventID + ", " );
               sb.append( "short_description = " + "\'" + short_description + "\'" + ", "); //String
               sb.append( "long_description = " + "\'" + long_description + "\'" + ", "); //String
               sb.append( "date_time = " + "\'" + formatter.format(date_time) + "\'" + ", ");
               sb.append( "repeat_pattern = " + repeat_pattern + ", " );
               sb.append( "valid_period = " + "\'" + valid_period + "\'" ); //String
               sb.append( ";");
          //} else if ( status == 2)      {
          System.err.println(sb.toString());
          return sb.toString();
}     My question is: I have taken my SQL query generated by toSQL() method in events and it worked.
Here is the funny thing:
Everything is correct syntax wise: No complaints what soever
The mysql part works: Tested separately.
So I tend to think that the problem lies within the SAX parser. I have written SAX2 parsers on this machine before and they have worked too. I tried inserting println statements all over startElement endElement etc etc only to find out that the SAX parser did not call any of the methods that I overided!! Why is that so?
Can you guys spot where my SAX parser fails?

I see.
I try to correct this problem by removing super();
so right now my code looks like this:
     static Event temp = new Event(0, 0, "null", "null", new Date(), 0, "null", 0);
     static String CurrentElement = null;
     static File XMLpath;
     static Connection db_connection;
     static XMLReader xr;
     static DefaultHandler XMLSAXhandler;
     //Constructor,      Build the SAX Parser
     public EventXMLParser(File path, Connection connection)     {
          try     {
               this.XMLpath = path;
               this.db_connection = connection;
               this.xr = XMLReaderFactory.createXMLReader();
               this.XMLSAXhandler = new DefaultHandler(); //create a new own handler
               this.xr.setContentHandler(XMLSAXhandler);
               this.xr.setErrorHandler(XMLSAXhandler);
               //System.out.println("DEBUG: db_connection is " + db_connection.toString());
          catch (Exception e)     {
               System.out.println("Constructor Error!");
               e.printStackTrace();
     }This time, I created a new instance of default handler() which can be referenced by as the objects's XMLSAXhandler. However, that did not solve the problem, why does the problem still persist?
Right now, there is only one instance of a default handler created. So why does all my parsing event functions still get ignored?

SAX Parser

I am using the sax parser provided by the package javax.xml.parsers to parse an XML file. It works fine as long as I have an XML file which has English characters. When I use it for parsing a file which has Korean characters in it, the parser fails to recognize them.
It used to throw an error "Line too long" on reading the Korean characters. Then I added an XML directive encoding="EUC-KR" and now it reads the file but does not recognize the characters correctly. It reads all the korean characters as question marks ('??').
Any pointers on what can be done to fix this problem.
Thanks,
RahulJ

Hi,
We've got a very similar problem. I'm parsing with SAX and DOM but the MS special characters keep appearing as ? or ??.
If the encoding is not specified in the XML file there are Parser Exceptions. If I set the encoding to "JISAutoDetect", "JIS", "MS932", "Cp1250 to Cp1258" or "ISO8859-1" then there are no exceptions but the stray characters still appear as ?s.
I managed to display the left and the right quotation marks in a servlet by setting the response Content Type to "text/html; charset=Shift_JIS" and the encoding="Cp1252" in the XML file. But I still have problems with the rest of the characters.
What kind of output do you use? Do you display in a web page or you just write to a file?
Thanks,
Ross

How to get a specific tag value from SAX parser

I am using the SAX method to parse my xml file.
My Question is how to get the returning characters parsed after calling?
esp the value of <body> tag?
Here is my xml file, and i want to get the parsed <body> value after call sax parser.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<article>
<content>
<title>floraaaaa</title>
<date>2004-03-19</date>
<body>
Details of an article, and i want to get the article details
</body>
</content>
</article>

here is the parser code I am using:
import java.io.*;
import org.apache.xerces.parsers.SAXParser;
import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
import org.xml.sax.ContentHandler;
import org.xml.sax.ErrorHandler;
import org.xml.sax.Locator;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import org.xml.sax.SAXParseException;
import org.xml.sax.XMLReader;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.XMLReaderFactory;
public class test2 {
     public String m_xmlDetail;
     public void readDetail(String url) {
          System.out.println("Parsing XML File: " + url + "\n\n");
          try {
               XMLReader parser = new SAXParser();
               ContentHandler contentHandler = new MyContentHandler();
               parser.setContentHandler(contentHandler);
               parser.parse(url);
          } //try ends here
          catch (IOException e) {
               System.out.println("Error reading URI: " + e.getMessage());
          } //catch ends here
          catch (SAXException e) {
               System.out.println("Error in parsing: " + e.getMessage());
          } //catch ends here
     } //function
}//close class
public class MyContentHandler implements ContentHandler {
     private Locator locator;
     //public String m_bodyDetail=new String();
     public void setDocumentLocator(Locator locator) {
          System.out.println(" * setDocumentLocator() called");
          this.locator = locator;
     public void startDocument() throws SAXException {
          System.out.println("Parsing begins...");
     public void endDocument() throws SAXException {
          System.out.println("...Parsing ends.");
     public void processingInstruction(String target, String data)throws SAXException {
          System.out.println("PI: Target:" + target + " and Data:" + data);
     public void startPrefixMapping(String prefix, String uri) {
          System.out.println("Mapping starts for prefix " + prefix + " mapped to URI " + uri);
     public void endPrefixMapping(String prefix) {
          System.out.println("Mapping ends for prefix " + prefix);
     public void startElement(String namespaceURI, String localName,String rawName, Attributes atts)throws SAXException {
          System.out.print("startElement: " + localName);
          if (!namespaceURI.equals("")) {
               System.out.println(" in namespace " + namespaceURI + " (" + rawName + ")");
          else {
               System.out.println(" has no associated namespace");
          for (int i=0; i<atts.getLength(); i++)
               System.out.println(" Attribute: " + atts.getLocalName(i) +"=" + atts.getValue(i));
     public void endElement(String namespaceURI, String localName, String rawName) throws SAXException {
          System.out.println("endElement: " + localName + "\n");
     public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int end) throws SAXException {
          String s = new String(ch, start, end);
          System.out.println("characters: " + s);
     public void ignorableWhitespace(char[] ch, int start, int end)throws SAXException {
          String s = new String(ch, start, end);
          System.out.println("ignorableWhitespace: [" + s + "]");
     public void skippedEntity(String name) throws SAXException {
          System.out.println("Skipping entity " + name);
} //close class

Problem in using SAX parser.

Hai All,
I have got a problem in using SAX parser.
My XML looks like this:
<authorizer>
<first-name>HP</first-name>
<last-name>Services</last-name>
<phone>800-22-1984</phone>
</authorizer>
<destination>
<first-name>John</first-name>
<last-name>Doe</last-name>
<company>John Doe Enterprises, Inc.</company>
<department>Manufacturing</department>
<phone>800-555-1234</phone>
<address>
<street-one>1654 Peachtree Str</street-one>
<street-two>Suite Y</street-two>
<city>Atlanta</city>
<province>GA</province>
<country>US</country>
<postal-code>30326</postal-code>
</address>
</destination>
my part of SAX parser code is:
public void startElement (String name, AttributeList attrs)
throws SAXException
accumulator.setLength(0);
public void characters (char buf [], int offset, int len)
throws SAXException
accumulator.append(buf, offset, len);
public void endElement (String name)
throws SAXException
if (name.equals("first-name") )
firstname=accumulator.toString().trim();
if (name.equals("last-name"))
lastname=accumulator.toString().trim();
My problem is that i have to store the values of first-name and last-name.
but i have that in both
<authorizer> </authorizer> Tag and
<destination> </destination>
I need to retrive authorizer's firstname,lastname and
destination's firstname and lastname.
what i mean is i need to store authorizerFirstName,authorizerLastName
destinationFirstname and destinationLastname.
Pls let me know how to do that.
Thanks in advance.
Pooja.

hi pooja,
I think you are using DataHandler for parsing. Its deprecated. try using contentHandler . You can get the value of the element at the beginning. say for example
<firstname>sdfs</firstname>
the startElement will be firstname
the next method that it invokes will be characters method which has the text associated with the element. I am sending a sample code for your problem. try using it .
boolean m_boolinAuth = false;
boolean m_boolinDest = false;
boolean m_bAuthFName = false;
boolean m_bAuthLName = false;
public void startElement(String namespaceURI, String elementName, String qName, Attributes atts)
//does the logic for startElement
if(qName.equals("Authorization"))
m_boolinAuth = true;
m_boolinDest = false;
else if(qName.equals("Destination"))
m_boolinDest = true;
m_boolinAuth = false;
if(qName.equals("firstname"))
m_bFirstName = true;
if(qName.equals("lastname"))
m_bLastName = true;
public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length)
//does the logic for characters.
String str = new String(ch,start,length);
if(m_bFirstName)
if(m_boolinAuth)
m_strAuthFirstName =str;
else if(m_boolinDest)
m_strDestFirstName = str;
m_bFirstName = false;
if(m_bLastName)
//same as first name case;
}

JAVA mapping using SAX parser adds extra tags

Hi,
We are using java mapping using a SAX parser.It works well in standalone application ie it parses correctly and gets our desired xml structure and the xml is well formed too but when we import it in XI as a jar file it does not throw any errors but adds extra start tags, as a result the output xml is not well formed.XI is adding extra start tags.
If any one else has faced a similar situation please help.
Regards,
Anirban.

Hi Roberto,
Thank you for the response.
As I said, it doesnt throw any error. It is working perfectly in standalone application. But when we deploy it to XI Server, it is not forming the well formed XML. We too are puzzled by this situation.
Okay, i will explain my scenario here.
The following is my input XML to the java pgm..
<Header>
</Header>
<Body>
</Body>
<SubBody1>
</SubBody1>
<SubBody2>
</SubBody2>
<SubBody3>
</SubBody3>
<SubBody4>
</SubBody4>
<Trail>
</Trail>
The desired output is
<Header>
<Body>
<NameChanged1>
<NameChanged2>
<SubBody3>
<SubBody4>
</SubBody4>
</SubBody3>
</NameChanged2>
</NameChanged1>
<Trail>
</Trail>
Just look at the SubBody2 and SubBody1 node, its tag name has been changed in the output XML. Thats y i have decided to use java mapping instead of message mapping.
I have developed the code for everything, i.e for changing the tag name and for forming the nested xml and it is working fine as a standalone application. But while deploying it to XI, the output is not well formed. I dont know the reason for it. Even I have checked the cardinality of the output Data types, that I have created. Its perfectly okay with all.
Any Ideas???
Regards,
Anirban

SAX Parser in Webdynpro for Java

Hi,
     Scenario : To get data entered in the Dynamic table of an online PDF form.
I have got the XML of the PDF form. The problem is with Parsing the XML to get the data.
I am using SAX parser. The code structure is as given,
public class Outercomp
    getPDFData(IS);    // IS is the Inputstream of the PDF XML
   // begin Others
   public static class inner extends DefaultHandler
        void getPDFData(InputStream IS)
              SAXParserFactory SAXfac = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
              SAXParser SAX = SAXfac.newSAXParser();
              SAX.parse(IS, new Outer.Inner());
        void startElement()
             // some Code
Problem :
I am getting the below exception at calling the method 'parse'.
com.sap.engine.lib.xml.parser.NestedSAXParserException: Generic Exception: -> java.lang.NullPointerexception
I checked both 'IS' and 'new Outer.Inner()', both are not null.
Please give me a solution
Thanks,
Prabhakar

Hi Satyajit,
     ' DefaultHandler ' is a class, and I am extending it.
     First I missed it in the code, now I have changed it. Thanks for reminding me.
Thanks,
Prabhakar

SAX Parser Error in JDBC Adapter

I am using a JDBC adapter to execute SQL statements during mapping runtime. However, it issues me an error regarding the SAX Parser when I have a '&' character in the SQL statement. I am not able to remove the & since it is in the database that I access and it will result to data inconsistency. I think that when the JDBC adapter of XI converts the SQL string to the XML format, it does not include the amp; string to the &, thus causing the SAX Parser to throw the error.
Is there someway I can configure the JDBC adapter in such a way that it will replace the & with &. Or is there a way to display how the JDBC adapter converts the SQL statement to its the XML representation of it?
Thanks a lot.

Hi,
For this kind of situation use some unique character combination like "#@!" for replacing "&" then parse the document and the restore the "&" later .
For this convert the input stream into Strring and then replace the occurences of "&".
regards.

Sax Parser for loading XML file

We have a requirment by which we need to load huge XMl file in our DB everyday.
THe XML file format is like --
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
<emp>
<ename>aaa</ename>
<sal>3000</sal>
</emp>
<emp>
<ename>bbb</ename>
<sal>5000</sal>
</emp>
<dept>
<name>productiong</name>
<location>USA</location>
<dept>
I have written XMl SAX parser to load this file into DB -
import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;
import org.xml.sax.XMLReader;
import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
import java.io.*;
import java.sql.*;
import oracle.jdbc.driver.*;
import oracle.xml.sql.*;
import oracle.sql.*;
import oracle.jdbc.*;
import oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource;
import java.util.*;
public class test extends DefaultHandler
String thisElement="";
String table_name="";
String table_name_2="";
String sql="";
String value_clause="";
StringBuffer value_clauseBuffer;
String Insert_sql="";
int flag;
String columnNames="";
String questionmarks="";
static String conStr = "jdbc:oracle:thin:@abcd1234:1521:dss501";
static Connection conn;
String arrayValues[] = new String[30];
int j = 0;
int emptyElementFlag = 0;
public SurveyReader() throws SQLException, FileNotFoundException, IOException{
DBConnect("username", "password");
public static void DBConnect(String username, String password)
throws SQLException, FileNotFoundException, IOException {
DriverManager.registerDriver(new oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver());
conn = DriverManager.getConnection(conStr, username, password);
conn.setAutoCommit(true);
public void startElement(String namespaceURI, String localName,
String qName, Attributes atts) throws SAXException {
thisElement = qName;
if (thisElement!=table_name){
columnNames = columnNames + ", " + qName;
questionmarks = questionmarks +", " + "?";
emptyElementFlag =0;
public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length)
throws SAXException {
if (thisElement !="root"){
if ((length == 0) && (thisElement !="") ){
table_name = thisElement;
sql = " Insert into "+ table_name +"(";
value_clause="";
value_clauseBuffer =null;
columnNames = "";
questionmarks ="";
j =0;
if ((length != 0) && (thisElement!="") && (thisElement!=table_name)){
emptyElementFlag = 1;
String s = new String(ch, start, length);
String newString = s.replaceAll("'", "''");
// String newString = s;
if (value_clauseBuffer== null){
value_clauseBuffer = new StringBuffer(newString);
else{
value_clauseBuffer.append(newString);
public void endElement(String namespaceURI, String localName, String qName)
throws SAXException {
if (thisElement !="root"){
if ((!(value_clauseBuffer == null))||((emptyElementFlag ==0) && (qName !=table_name))) {
try{
//value_clauseBuffer.append("', '");
if (value_clauseBuffer == null){
arrayValues[j]="";
else{
arrayValues[j]=""+value_clauseBuffer;
j = j+1;
value_clauseBuffer = null;
emptyElementFlag =0;
}catch(Exception e){
System.err.println(e);
System.exit(2);
if (qName == table_name){
if (!(value_clauseBuffer == null)){
value_clause = "'"+value_clauseBuffer;
columnNames =columnNames.substring(1, columnNames.length());
int paramNumber = j;
questionmarks =questionmarks.substring(1, questionmarks.length());
sql = sql + columnNames + " ) values (" + questionmarks +"); ";
Insert_sql=Insert_sql + sql;
sql = "Begin "+sql + " End; ";
     try{
     PreparedStatement pstat = conn.prepareStatement(sql);
for (int i=0; i<=j-1; i++ ){
int k = i+1;
pstat.setObject(k, arrayValues);
     ResultSet rset = pstat.executeQuery();
     rset.close();
     pstat.close();
catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println(e);
System.out.print("sql " + sql);
System.exit(1);
table_name_2 = table_name;
thisElement = "";
public static void main (String args[]) {
XMLReader xmlReader = null;
System.out.println("Time " + new java.util.Date());
try {
SAXParserFactory spfactory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
spfactory.setValidating(false);
SAXParser saxParser = spfactory.newSAXParser();
xmlReader = saxParser.getXMLReader();
xmlReader.setContentHandler(new SurveyReader());
xmlReader.setErrorHandler(new SurveyReader());
InputSource source = new InputSource("short.xml");
xmlReader.parse(source);
conn.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println(e);
System.exit(1);
This parser takes 2 hours to laod file of size around 8MB.
ANy suggestions on improving performance of the parser.
ANy other approach I should be taking to load this file into DB.
We are using ORacle 9i DB with Character set UTF 8.
Thanks!

String buf = (new String(ch, start, length)).trim();
if (thisElement != "root"){
if ((buf.length() == 0) && (thisElement !="") ){
It run ok!
Thanks 58871!
Now, i want to export oracle table to xml file like :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
<emp>
<ename>aaa</ename>
<sal>3000</sal>
</emp>
<emp>
<ename>bbb</ename>
<sal>5000</sal>
</emp>
</root>
Can SAX export to xml format?
Pham Thanh Tung

XML to CSV using SAX Parser

Hello
I need to convert xml files to csv format using SAX Parser. The following code & outputs are as below:
XML file:
<Library>
<Book>
     <Title>Professional JINI</Title>
     <Author>bs</Author>
     <Publisher>Oreilly Publications</Publisher>
</Book>
<Book>
     <Title>XML Programming</Title>
     <Author>java</Author>
     <Publisher>Mann Publications</Publisher>
</Book>
</Library>
public class BooksLibrary extends DefaultHandler
protected static final String XML_FILE_NAME = "C:\\library1.xml";
     public static void main (String argv [])
          // Use the default (non-validating) parser
          SAXParserFactory factory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
          try {
               FileOutputStream fos=new FileOutputStream("C:/test.txt");
               // Set up output stream
               out = new OutputStreamWriter (fos, "UTF8");
               // Parse the input
               SAXParser saxParser = factory.newSAXParser();
               saxParser.parse( new File(XML_FILE_NAME), new BooksLibrary() );
          } catch (Throwable t) {
               t.printStackTrace ();
          System.exit (0);
     static private Writer out;
     //===========================================================
     // Methods in SAX DocumentHandler
     //===========================================================
     public void startDocument ()
     throws SAXException
          showData ("<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>");
          newLine();
     public void endDocument ()
     throws SAXException
          try {
               newLine();
               out.flush ();
          } catch (IOException e) {
               throw new SAXException ("I/O error", e);
     public void startElement (String name, Attributes attrs)
     throws SAXException
          showData ("<"+name);
          if (attrs != null) {
               for (int i = 0; i < attrs.getLength (); i++) {
                    showData (" ");
                    showData (attrs.getLocalName(i)+"=\""+attrs.getValue (i)+"\"");
          showData (">");
     public void endElement (String name)
     throws SAXException
          showData ("</"+name+">");
     public void characters (char buf [], int offset, int len)
     throws SAXException
          String s = new String(buf, offset, len);
          showData (s);
     //===========================================================
     // Helpers Methods
     //===========================================================
     // Wrap I/O exceptions in SAX exceptions, to
     // suit handler signature requirements
     private void showData (String s)
     throws SAXException
          try {
               out.write (s);
               out.flush ();
          } catch (IOException e) {
               throw new SAXException ("I/O error", e);
     // Start a new line
     private void newLine ()
     throws SAXException
          //String lineEnd = System.getProperty("line.separator");
          try {
               out.write (", ");
          } catch (IOException e) {
               throw new SAXException ("I/O error", e);
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------output is as follows:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>,
     Professional JINI
     bs
     Oreilly Publications
     XML Programming
     java
     Mann Publications
Can anyone please tell me how to remove that indentation space & get the output as :
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>, Professional JINI, bs, Oreilly Publications, XML Programming, java, Mann Publications
Thanks

By the way, there is a new feature in Java 5.0 (Tiger) called "Annotations."
Since your code extneds DefaultHandler, you could specify a line with
@Override
before the definition of each of your methods. If you had used these, the compiler would have given an error since your methods did not override the methods of DefaultHandler.
(If your code implemented ContentHandler, by contrast, using @Override is invalid because you need to implement all of the methods defined in the interface definition.)
The other comment is that the safest way to handle characters() data is to use a StringBuilder/Buffer (StringBuilder is only valid in 5.0, StringBuffer has been around since Release 1.0) that you define in the startElement method. Use the append method to gather data presented to you in the characters() method and use toString() to harvest the data in the endElement method.
Dave Patterson

Problem with sax parser

Hello..
I have the following problem. When I parse an xml document with blank spaces and numbers with decimals, its sometimes comes out as one string and sometimes as two, for example "First A" sometimes comes out as "First" and "A" and sometimes as "First A", which is how its stored in the xml file. Same with numbers like 19.20. Im enclosing a little of my code..
public void characters(char buf[], int offset, int len)
throws SAXException
if (textBuffer != null) {
SaveString = ""+textBuffer;
if(i>-1)
numbers = SaveString;
Whats wrong and how do I fix it.
Best Regards Dan
PS I have more code, in data and out data if needed.Ds

Hello,
I do not know if this is your problem, yet please find hereafter an excerpt of the SAX API:
public void characters(char[] ch,
                       int start,
                       int length)
                throws SAXException
... SAX parsers may return all contiguous character data in a single chunk, or they may split it into several chunks;...
... Note that some parsers will report whitespace in element content using the ignorableWhitespace method rather than this one (validating parsers must do so)...
In other words, I am afraid that your issue is the "standard behaviour" of a SAX parser.
I hope it helps.

SAX Parser throws NullPointerException

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for