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About the XML parsers

Oracle Reports uses Oracle's Java-based XML parsers, DOM and SAX, to search and process XML documents. These parsers are packaged conform to the XML 1.0 specification and both facilitate processing an XML document as either:

DOM parser

XML documents have two levels of validation for their correctness. The DOM parser validates for both:

SAX parser

The SAX parser validates only whether the XML date is "well formed" and is not capable of validating against the data definition. It is an event-driven model for processing XML. SAX parser fires off a series of events as it reads the document from beginning to end. Those events are passed to event handlers, which provide access to the contents of the document.

Comparing parsers

Attribute

DOM parser

SAX parser

Check for well formedness

Yes

Yes

Validates against DTD

Yes

No

File size

May have problems with very large files

Any

Memory requirement

Dependent on file size; the whole data file is loaded into memory

Small

Size limitations

Very large files may not parse

None

Speed

Slower

Fast

 

See also

Using the DOM parser

Using the SAX parser