PureBasic

Efficiently Process a Huge XML File

See more XML Examples

Demonstrates a technique for processing a huge XML file (can be any size, even many gigabytes).

Note: This example requires Chilkat v9.5.0.80 or greater.

PureBasic

IncludeFile "CkXml.pb"
IncludeFile "CkStringBuilder.pb"
IncludeFile "CkFileAccess.pb"

Procedure ChilkatExample()

    success.i = 0

    ; This example shows a way to efficiently process a gigantic XML file -- one that may be too large
    ; to fit in memory.  
    ; 
    ; Two types of XML parsers exist: DOM parsers and SAX parsers.

    ; A DOM parser is a Document Object Model parser, where the entire XML is loaded into memory
    ; and the application has the luxury of interacting with the XML in a convenient, random-access
    ; way.  The Chilkat Xml class is a DOM parser.  Because the entire XML is loaded into memory,
    ; huge XML files (on the order of gigabytes) are usually not loadable for memory constraints.

    ; A SAX parser is such that the XML file is parsed as an input stream.  No DOM exists.  
    ; Using a SAX parser is generally less palatable than using a DOM parser, for many reasons.
    ; 
    ; The technique described here is a hybrid.  It streams the XML file as unstructured text
    ; to extract fragments that are individually treated as separate XML documents loaded into
    ; the Chilkat Xml parser.
    ; 
    ; For example, imagine your XML file is several GBs in size, but has a relatively simple structure, such as:
    ; 
    ; <Transactions>
    ;     <Transaction id="1">
    ;          ...
    ;     </Transaction>
    ;     <Transaction id="2">
    ;          ...
    ;     </Transaction>
    ;     <Transaction id="3">
    ;          ...
    ;     </Transaction>
    ; ...
    ; </Transactions>

    ; In the following code, each <Transaction ...> ... </Transaction>
    ; is extracted and loaded separately into an Xml object, where it can be manipulated
    ; independently.  The entire XML file is never entirely loaded into memory.

    fac.i = CkFileAccess::ckCreate()
    If fac.i = 0
        Debug "Failed to create object."
        ProcedureReturn
    EndIf

    success = CkFileAccess::ckOpenForRead(fac,"qa_data/xml/transactions.xml")
    If success = 0
        Debug CkFileAccess::ckLastErrorText(fac)
        CkFileAccess::ckDispose(fac)
        ProcedureReturn
    EndIf

    xml.i = CkXml::ckCreate()
    If xml.i = 0
        Debug "Failed to create object."
        ProcedureReturn
    EndIf

    sb.i = CkStringBuilder::ckCreate()
    If sb.i = 0
        Debug "Failed to create object."
        ProcedureReturn
    EndIf

    firstIteration.i = 1
    retval.i = 1
    numTransactions.i = 0

    ; The begin marker is "XML tag aware".  If the begin marker begins with "<"
    ; and ends with ">", then it is assumed to be an XML tag and it will also match
    ; substrings where the ">" can be a whitespace char.
    beginMarker.s = "<Transaction>"
    endMarker.s = "</Transaction>"

    While retval = 1
        CkStringBuilder::ckClear(sb)
        ; The retval can have the following values:
        ; 0: No more fragments exist.
        ; 1: Captured the next fragment.  The text from beginMarker to endMarker, including the markers, are returned in sb.
        ; -1: Error.
        retval = CkFileAccess::ckReadNextFragment(fac,firstIteration,beginMarker,endMarker,"utf-8",sb)
        firstIteration = 0

        If retval = 1
            numTransactions = numTransactions + 1
            success = CkXml::ckLoadSb(xml,sb,1)
            ; Your application may now do what it needs with this particular XML fragment...
        EndIf

    Wend

    If retval < 0
        Debug CkFileAccess::ckLastErrorText(fac)
    EndIf

    Debug "numTransactions: " + Str(numTransactions)


    CkFileAccess::ckDispose(fac)
    CkXml::ckDispose(xml)
    CkStringBuilder::ckDispose(sb)


    ProcedureReturn
EndProcedure