Getting null for an element when trying to parse XML

Question

I have the following XML:

<ex>

    <email>
        [email protected]
    </email>

    <login_status>
        TRUE
    </login_status>

    <category>
        Personal
    </category>

    <subcategory>
        Food
    </subcategory>

    <May>
        50
    </May>

</ex>

I have the following Java Code:

XmlPullParserFactory xmlFactoryObject = XmlPullParserFactory.newInstance();
                            XmlPullParser myParser = xmlFactoryObject.newPullParser();
                            myParser.setFeature(XmlPullParser.FEATURE_PROCESS_NAMESPACES, false);
                            InputStream inputstream = new ByteArrayInputStream(response.getBytes());
                            myParser.setInput(inputstream, null);

                            int event;
                            String text = null;
                            try {
                                event = myParser.getEventType();
                                while (event != XmlPullParser.END_DOCUMENT) {
                                    String name = myParser.getName();
                                    switch (event) {
                                        case XmlPullParser.START_TAG:
                                            break;
                                        case XmlPullParser.TEXT:
                                            text = myParser.getText();
                                            System.out.println("text"+text);
                                            break;

                                        case XmlPullParser.END_TAG:
                                            String email = "email";
                                        if(name.equals("email")){
                                            email = myParser.getAttributeValue(null,"email");
                                            System.out.println("emaildecrypt"+email);
                                        }
                                            break;
                                    }
                                    event = myParser.next();

                                }
                                //   parsingComplete = false;
                            } catch (Exception e) {
                                e.printStackTrace();
                            }

However I am always getting Null when I print the email, I am following this tutorial but I am not able to determine where things go wrong? Any hints?

giorashc · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-26 07:47:42Z

2

You need to use getText instead of getAttributeValue :

email = myParser.getText();                                             
System.out.println("emaildecrypt"+email);

This will return the text in the current tag but be sure to capture it in the case XmlPullParser.TEXT (as you mentioned in the comment) but also keep the tag name so you will know where you are:

int event;
String text = null;

try {
    event = myParser.getEventType();
    String name = ""
    while (event != XmlPullParser.END_DOCUMENT) {       
        switch (event) {
        case XmlPullParser.START_TAG:
            name = myParser.getName();
            break;
        case XmlPullParser.TEXT:
            if(name.equals("email")){
                text = myParser.getText();
                System.out.println("text"+text);
            }           
            break;

        case XmlPullParser.END_TAG:         
            break;
        }
        event = myParser.next();

    }
    //   parsingComplete = false;
} catch (Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

getAttributeValue will return an attribute value for the current tag. if email tag was defined as:

<email address="[email protected]">

Then to get the address value you would use (for the email tag only):

myParser.getAttributeValue(null,"address");

edited May 26, 2015 at 7:47

answered May 26, 2015 at 7:25

giorashc

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6 Comments

User3 Over a year ago

Nope - all is null but when I do

case XmlPullParser.TEXT:                                             text = myParser.getText();                                             System.out.println("text"+text);

I get the values.

giorashc Over a year ago

yes, ofcourse you are checking the text at the tag end!. adding the text case will fix it. you need to keep the context though of what tag you are currently processing so you will know to which variable you need to assign the text value

User3 Over a year ago

Its very strange if(name.equals("email")){ If I this shift to the XmlPullParser.TEXT case I get a null on name, whereas I have already defined name.

giorashc Over a year ago

look at my edited answer. use the name to keep the tag name on a tag start and use it in the text case

User3 Over a year ago

The only problem with this is that it loops twice, for the first time I get the email second loop its empty and overrides the previous value. The current system.out results in:

05-26 14:54:03.977  22213-22263/exa.com.ex I/System.out﹕ [email protected] 05-26 14:54:03.977  22213-22263/exa.com.ex I/System.out﹕ email

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