[AccessD] Parsing XML as a string?

Charlotte Foust cfoust at infostatsystems.com
Thu Nov 16 10:30:21 CST 2006


Remind me what version of Access you're using.  ADO is capable to
handling xml files, but you need to have a good idea of the structure
involved.  The line breaks don't really count in an xml file, they're
there for human use.  Can you look at the file in an xml parser?

Charlotte Foust 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Greg Smith
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 7:46 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: [AccessD] Parsing XML as a string?

Hi everyone!

Ok...I admit that trying to import that XML file I had directly into
Access may have SEEMED like a good, "easy", idea...at the time...but
after looking around and from the comments here, the idea was...well..it
sucked.
 If the XML they were sending to me were compatible then I might have
had a chance...but it's just not feasible.  There actually wasn't any
way to define it using a dtd/xls/xlst within my lifetime, so I'm going
to have to use a different approach.

The files they send as XML are not that large, so I could easily import
them as text, separate out what I need and put it into the required
tables.  However, since they send it as a single string, it becomes
harder to parse it since there are multiple duplicated 'keys' that I
need to pull from it.  And they're not necessarily in the same position
all of the time.

I could import it as a single string into a memo field, but I can't
figure out how to disect a memo field string like that.

When I import it as text, I could break it down at the "<" characters,
importing each one into a separate columns, but I need them in rows, not
columns, to search and find the strings of data I need.

So, in summary, my only two choices (that I can think of) are:

1.  Import the XML as a single string into a memo and somehow parse that
into the data I need.
2.  Import the XML as text, separating it on the "<" characters into
columns, then somehow magically (transpose columns into rows?) transform
that to usable information.

ANY suggestions, short of retirement (although not a bad idea...), would
be GREATLY apprecaited!

Thanks!

Greg Smith



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