Expat XML Parser: Fast XML Parsing Library in C
Expat XML Parser is a stream-oriented XML parser written in C. This utility software is the first available open-source XML parser. It has been widely used in various open-source software, including Apache HTTP Server, Mozilla, PHP, and Python. Expat excels at parsing large files that are too big to fit into memory, making it a valuable tool for performance and flexibility. It is a free program that can be copied, distributed, and modified under the MIT/X Consortium license.
As a stream-oriented parser, Expat allows you to register callback functions with the parser and feed it the document in pieces. This enables you to parse really huge documents that won't fit into memory. While the app may seem intimidating at first due to the many kinds of handlers and options, you only need to learn four functions to perform most tasks. Creating a new parser object, setting handlers for start and end tags, and handling text can be done with simple function calls.
Expat provides facilities for sophisticated event handling, resembling the events defined in the Sample API for XML (SAX). Although it is not a SAX-compliant parser, projects often build SAX and DOM parsers on top of Expat. The parser library also supports stopping and restarting parsing at arbitrary times, making it relatively easy to implement a pull parser.
Overall, Expat XML Parser is a highly efficient and robust parsing library that complies with standards. While it may have a learning curve due to its extensive functionality, it is a valuable tool for developers working with XML files.
