MacLochlainns Weblog » xml to csv http://blog.mclaughlinsoftware.com Michael McLaughlin's Technical Blog Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:21:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Convert XML Files to Comma-delimited Files without Programming http://blog.mclaughlinsoftware.com/2008/06/22/convert-xml-files-to-comma-delimited-file-without-programming/ http://blog.mclaughlinsoftware.com/2008/06/22/convert-xml-files-to-comma-delimited-file-without-programming/#comments Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:07:23 +0000 maclochlainn http://maclochlainn.wordpress.com/?p=45 A couple students snagged some data through Google searches but they found it was formatted as an XML file. They wanted to know the easiest way to convert it and load it into an Oracle database. I created this quick reference which leverages Apache Xalan Project command-line tool and Oracle external tables. You must source files in the %CLASSPATH% (or $CLASSPATH) correctly order as shown in the example or you will raise a "NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/xalan/xslt/Process" error.

Briefly, XML supports two paradigms. One is the single-pass compiler (or streams approach). Another is a data structure (or tree approach), which typically requires programming skills.

XSLT Processors typically implement a streams approach. You call the XSLT Processor by passing two arguments. One is an XML source document and the other XSL style sheet.

While this is often done in your web browser or an application, you can leverage the technology to manually convert an XML file transfer into a comma-delimited file. Comma-delimited files are also known as comma separated value (CSV) files. After you convert the XML file you can use an Oracle external table to read it into the database. Naturally, the Oracle XDK offers more features and complexity.

A quick example …

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