XML and PHP

SAX

There are two basic approaches to parsing an XML document:

• The event-based approach. Under this approach, an XML parser reads an XML document one chunk at a time, processing each tag as it finds it in the document. Each time the parser encounters an XML construct (an element start tag, a CDATA block, or a PI), it generates an event that can be intercepted and processed by the application layer. A Simple API for XML (SAX) parser uses this event-based approach to parsing an XML document.

• The tree-based approach (DOM). Here, an XML parser reads the entire document into memory at one time, and creates a hierarchical tree representation of it in memory. The parser also exposes a number of traversal methods, which developers can use to navigate ...