XML document parsing with DOM

Question

I have an xml file as such:

element
 element1
  element1
element

Now: element1 can have text, or/and either/both of the two elements element2 element3 so the xml file could be

<element>
 <element1>
 hi hello etc
  </element1>
</element>

or

<element>
 <element1>
 hi hello etc
 <element2>
 how are you
   </element2>
  <element3>
    fine
   </element3>
  </element1>
</element>

I am successfull in parsing it when it is as in the above examples. i can access the nodes by their tags and get the content out of it. problem arises , when the xml is of the following form:

<element> 
<element1>
 <element2>
 how are you
   </element2>
  </element1>
</element>

I have a loop, that goes through the xml document and checks for the tags element1,element2,element3 and get the contecnt. for the above example i get an acception and the loops terminates. because when it reaches element1, it doesnt get a content,instead there ia another element. please help me solve this problem thanks

Answer 1

If each line only contains element name or text content alone, I will use stack to parse such context. so, define a stack S, and if the XML file as followings:

<element>
  <element1>
    hi hello etc
    <element2>
        how are you
    </element2>
    <element3>
        fine
    </element3>
  </element1>
</element>

So the whole idea may like this:

push <element> --> S[ <element> ]

push <element1> --> S[ <element> , <element1> ]

push hi hello etc --> S[ <element> , <element1> , hi hello etc ]

push <element2> --> S[ <element> , <element1> , hi hello etc , <element2> ]

push how are you --> S[ <element> , <element1> , hi hello etc , <element2> , how are you ]

Get </element2> , then Pop twice, and get how are you --> S[ <element> , <element1> , hi hello etc ]

push <element3> --> S[ <element> , <element1> , hi hello etc , <element3> ]

push fine --> S[ <element> , <element1> , hi hello etc , <element3> , fine ]

Get </element3> , then Pop twice, and get fine --> S[ <element> , <element1> , hi hello etc ]

Get </element1> , then Pop twice, and get hi hello etc --> S[ <element> ]

Is this what you mean??