Writing a formatter in java to display XML file in an organized display

Question

i have to write a formatter that reads in an XML file and outputs something..like a text file that displays the XML content. Normally when you open XML in text file, all u say is one line in which all the content is displayed..i want to wirte a program that will read in the XML and output a text file which shows the XML content in the same way like wen u view it on a browser..
thanks

Answer 1

ok here you go....this is rough and probably buggy.
Needs some real testing and refactoring and still does not work with
<! and
<?
tags, but for simple XML it should do about what you want.
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
public class XMLParse
    private static String OPEN_TAG = "OPEN_TAG";
    private static String CLOSE_TAG = "CLOSE_TAG";
    private static String SLASH = "SLASH";
    private static String LETTER = "LETTER";
    private static String SLASH_LETTER = "SLASH_LETTER";
    private static String GET_VALUE = "GET_VALUE";
    private static int INDENT_LEVEL = 4;
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
        FileReader file = new FileReader( "props/test.xml" );
        BufferedReader fileInput = new BufferedReader( file );
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
        String s;
        while ( (s = fileInput.readLine()) != null )
            sb.append( s );
        parseXmlString( sb.toString() );
    public static void printIndent(int x)
        for ( int i = 0; i < x * INDENT_LEVEL; i++ )
            System.out.print( " " );
    public static void print(String s)
        System.out.println( s );
    public static boolean isWhiteSpace(char c)
        boolean isWhite = false;
        if ( c == '\n' || c == '\t' || c == ' ' )
            isWhite = true;
        return isWhite;
    public static void parseXmlString(String s)
        char[] chars = s.toCharArray();
        int indentLevel = -1;
        String state = "";
        String latestTag = "";
        for ( int i = 0; i < chars.length; i++ )
            char c = chars;
if ( state.equalsIgnoreCase( GET_VALUE ) || !isWhiteSpace( c ) )
switch ( c )
case '<':
if ( state.equalsIgnoreCase( GET_VALUE ) )
printIndent( indentLevel + 1 );
print( "*" + latestTag );
state = OPEN_TAG;
latestTag = "";
break;
state = OPEN_TAG;
latestTag = "";
break;
case '>':
if ( state.equalsIgnoreCase( SLASH ) )
indentLevel--;
printIndent( indentLevel + 1 );
print( "+-" + latestTag );
state = CLOSE_TAG;
break;
if ( state.equalsIgnoreCase( SLASH_LETTER ) )
printIndent( indentLevel + 1 );
print( "-" + latestTag );
state = CLOSE_TAG;
break;
printIndent( indentLevel );
print( "+" + latestTag );
state = CLOSE_TAG;
break;
case '/':
if ( state.equalsIgnoreCase( OPEN_TAG ) )
indentLevel--;
state = SLASH;
break;
default:
if ( state.equalsIgnoreCase( OPEN_TAG ) )
indentLevel++;
latestTag += c;
state = LETTER;
break;
if ( state.equalsIgnoreCase( CLOSE_TAG ) )
latestTag = "";
latestTag += c;
state = GET_VALUE;
break;
if ( state.equalsIgnoreCase( LETTER ) )
latestTag += c;
state = LETTER;
break;
if ( state.equalsIgnoreCase( SLASH ) )
latestTag += c;
state = SLASH_LETTER;
break;
if ( state.equalsIgnoreCase( SLASH_LETTER ) )
latestTag += c;
state = SLASH_LETTER;
break;
if ( state.equalsIgnoreCase( GET_VALUE ) )
latestTag += c;
state = GET_VALUE;
break;