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xmlperlxml-simple

XML::Simple ignoring emdash tag?

I'm using XML Simple to parse an XML file, the problematic part looks like that:

    <textBody>
        <title>
            <titlePart>
                <text>SECTION A <emdash/> HUMAN NECESSITIES</text>
            </titlePart>
        </title>
    </textBody>
    <ipcEntry kind="t" symbol="A01" ipcLevel="C" entryType="K" lang="EN">
        <textBody>
            <title>
                <titlePart>
                    <text>AGRICULTURE</text>
                </titlePart>
            </title>
        </textBody>
    </ipcEntry

for some reason XML::Simple completely ignores <text>SECTION A <emdash/> HUMAN NECESSITIES</text> I guess its because the emdash tag, because <text>AGRICULTURE</text> is parsed just fine. I also tried setting the parser by: 

$XML::Simple::PREFERRED_PARSER = 'XML::Parser';

still no go. Any idea?

Solution

  • Having a tag whose value includes both text and other tags is called "mixed content". XML::Simple doesn't handle mixed content (not usefully, anyway). In XML::Simple's view of the universe, a tag can contain either text or other tags, not both. That's why it's called "Simple". To quote its docs:

    Mixed content (elements which contain both text content and nested elements) will be not be represented in a useful way - element order and significant whitespace will be lost. If you need to work with mixed content, then XML::Simple is not the right tool for your job

    You'll have to pick a different XML module. XML::LibXML and XML::Twig are popular choices.

    Another possibility would be to get whoever produced the XML to use entities instead of tags to represent characters like a dash. For example, XML::Simple could handle:

    <text>SECTION A &#8212; HUMAN NECESSITIES</text>

    just fine. (&#8212; is an em dash.)