Java - not enough heap-space to parse large XML file

Question

I have a problem with my XML parser. I need to read and parse a 433kb XML-file and for that, I have written 2 java classes. One class uses SAX and the other JDOM2.

To test, if my class can read the file, I started of by only printing out the root-nodes name.

The problem? Not enough heap space.

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XMLParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.jdom2.input.sax.SAXBuilderEngine.build(SAXBuilderEngine.java:217)
at org.jdom2.input.sax.SAXBuilderEngine.build(SAXBuilderEngine.java:277)
at org.jdom2.input.sax.SAXBuilderEngine.build(SAXBuilderEngine.java:264)
at org.jdom2.input.SAXBuilder.build(SAXBuilder.java:1116)
at xmlparser.version.one.ReadXML.main(ReadXML.java:20)

I already read a lot of ideas on stackoverflow and other platforms and used them.

So far I have made sure, that my eclipse uses the 64bit JRE, I have made sure my environment-variables point to the 64bit JRE. I also tried to extend the maximum memory available to eclipe in the eclipse.ini. I have tried setting the available memory for the class itself to this: -Xms512M -Xmx1024M Though 1024M is not enough. so I need to set it to 2048, preferable to 4096 just to be sure.

It still doesn't work, now it gives me this error:

Error occurred during initialization of VM Could not reserve enough space for object heap

I have a 64bit System, i3 dual-core with 16GB DDR3 RAM of which at this moment 11.2GB are available.

I am out of ideas, can anyone help?

433 kilobyte file? Then you have either a leak or a badly malconfigured JVM. — Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
– Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen, Commented Jul 19, 2014 at 12:08
Can you provide the code you are using to parse this? Also what Operating system are you using? — GoldenJam
– GoldenJam, Commented Jul 19, 2014 at 12:41
I would not prefer to reveal my code, it is filled with information I am not allowed to reveal. but I can post the guides I used: mkyong.com/java/how-to-read-xml-file-in-java-sax-parser newthinktank.com/2012/06/java-video-tutorial-44 As for my operating system, I use windows 8.1 64bit — HellsBell
– HellsBell, Commented Jul 19, 2014 at 13:06

Dima · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-19 11:54:19Z

1

you can increase your heap size

java -Xmx2g myprogram

enter image description here

edited Jul 19, 2014 at 11:54

answered Jul 19, 2014 at 11:42

Dima

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5 Comments

HellsBell Over a year ago

I already tried this, the second error occurs when I exceed 1024m.

Dima Over a year ago

so probably your computer doesnt have enough memory for this file

ThomasEdwin Over a year ago

64 bit jdk should be able to exceed 1024. Are you sure that you are using 64bit jdk?

HellsBell Over a year ago

As I also stated in my question, I have 16 GB memory of which >10 are free.

HellsBell Over a year ago

@Thomas: Thanks for the advice. I am pretty sure, I had the 64bit version of the JDK1.7, I made sure, I use 64bit versions when I installed necessary software on my PC. But your idea brought another idea to me: upgrading to JDK1.8 an now it works. So either the new installation of the JDK made the difference or I made the mistake using the 32bit JDK1.7 when I installed it the first time. It works now, thanks for the push in the right direction.

Brett Okken · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-19 12:39:58Z

0

Try using StAX to parse the xml. StAX is a streaming api that allows you to "pull parse" the xml so that the entire document does not have to be read into memory

answered Jul 19, 2014 at 12:39

Brett Okken

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