XML to CSV Conversion - Perl / CGI

[Ravi]

Hi All,

Does anyone have a perl script handy to show me how to convert an XML
document to CSV format ?

Thanks in advance.

[James Willmore]

On 18 Aug 2003 06:53:19 -0700
[email]anamalay@hotmail.com[/email] (Ravi) wrote:

> Does anyone have a perl script handy to show me how to convert an
> XML document to CSV format ?

Someone has gone to the trouble of creating the XML::CSV module just
for this purpose.

HTH

Jim

[trwww]

[email]anamalay@hotmail.com[/email] (Ravi) wrote in message news:<2c6dd813.0308180553.382c295b@posting.google. com>...

> Hi All,
>
> Does anyone have a perl script handy to show me how to convert an XML
> document to CSV format ?
>

Here is a way, using XML::XPath:

[trwww@waveright perl]# cat xml2csv.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use XML::XPath;

my($xp) = XML::XPath->new( join('', <DATA>) );
my(@records) = $xp->findnodes( '/records/record' );
my($firstTime) = 0;

foreach my $record ( @records ) {
my(@fields) = $xp->find( './child::*', $record )->get_nodelist();
unless ( $firstTime++ ) {
print( join( ',', map { $_->getName() } @fields ), "\n");
}

print( join( ',', map { $_->string_value() } @fields ), "\n");

}

__DATA__
<records>
<record>
<id>1</id>
<name>George Foo</name>
<phone>555.666.7777</phone>
</record>
<record>
<id>2</id>
<name>Betty Bar</name>
<phone>666.777.8888</phone>
</record>
</records>

[trwww@waveright perl]# perl xml2csv.pl
id,name,phone
1,George Foo,555.666.7777
2,Betty Bar,666.777.8888

If your data has commas in it, then you can run $_->string_value()
through a filter that escapes the comma.

enjoy,

Todd W.

[James E Keenan]

"James Willmore" <jwillmore@cyberia.com> wrote in message
news:20030818155810.44fe12fa.jwillmore@cyberia.com ...

> On 18 Aug 2003 06:53:19 -0700
> [email]anamalay@hotmail.com[/email] (Ravi) wrote:

> > Does anyone have a perl script handy to show me how to convert an
> > XML document to CSV format ?

>
> Someone has gone to the trouble of creating the XML::CSV module just
> for this purpose.
>

The shorthand description of XML::CSV is: "Perl extension converting CSV
files to XML". I couldn't find anything in the documentation that suggests
that this module goes the other way around.

[James Willmore]

"James E Keenan" <jkeen@concentric.net> wrote in message news:<bhrlrt$3eu@dispatch.concentric.net>...

> "James Willmore" <jwillmore@cyberia.com> wrote in message
> news:20030818155810.44fe12fa.jwillmore@cyberia.com ...

> > On 18 Aug 2003 06:53:19 -0700
> > [email]anamalay@hotmail.com[/email] (Ravi) wrote:

> > > Does anyone have a perl script handy to show me how to convert an
> > > XML document to CSV format ?

> >
> > Someone has gone to the trouble of creating the XML::CSV module just
> > for this purpose.
> >

>
> The shorthand description of XML::CSV is: "Perl extension converting CSV
> files to XML". I couldn't find anything in the documentation that suggests
> that this module goes the other way around.

You appear to be correct. How about:
AnyData::Format::XML

-or- you could perform the same search I used to find this - go to
[url]http://search.cpan.org/[/url]

There are several XML modules listed there - some use SAX, others
Expat, others are pure Perl. I played around with XML, but have had
no real need to use it. I'd like to, because XML files can be used in
some many different ways - just have not found them time.

Or you could write your own - which I think you wanted to avoid doing.

HTH and sorry I can't be of more help - maybe someone else who uses
XML regularlly can chime in.

Jim