In Java, how do I parse XML as a String instead of a file?

Question

I have the following code: DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder().parse(xmlFile);

How can I get it to parse XML contained within a String instead of a file?

Answer 1

javadocs show that the parse method is overloaded.

Create a StringStream or InputSource using your string XML and you should be set.

Answer 2

One way is to use the version of parse that takes an InputSource rather than a file

A SAX InputSource can be constructed from a Reader object. One Reader object is the StringReader

So something like

parse(new InputSource(new StringReader(myString))) may work.

Answer 3

Convert the string to an InputStream and pass it to DocumentBuilder

ByteArrayInputStream stream = new ByteArrayInputStream(string.getBytes());
DocumentBuilder builder = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder();
builder.parse(stream);

EDIT
In response to bendin's comment regarding encoding, see shsteimer's answer to this question.

Answer 4

I have this function in my code base, this should work for you.

    public static Document loadXMLFromString(String xml) throws Exception
    {
        DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
        DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
        InputSource is = new InputSource(new StringReader(xml));
        return builder.parse(is);
    }

also see this similar question