(Not sure if this should be CW or not, you're welcome to comment if you think it should be). At my workplace, we have many many different file formats for all kinds of purposes.

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Simple XML is a tiny and simple to use XML parser written in C. You might be interested in the simple XML parser if you want. A simple to use XML parser. Program with DOM in C/C++. Program with. Demonstrates how to validate an XML document and/or fragment against an XML schema using C/C++. Validate an XML.

Most, if not all, of these file formats are just written in plain text, with no consistency. I'm only a student working part-time, and I have no experience with using xml in production, but it seems to me that using xml would improve productivity, as we often need to parse, check and compare these outputs. So my questions are: given that I can only control one small application and its output (only - the inputs are formats that are used in other applications as well), is it worth trying to change the output to be xml-based? If so, what are the best known ways to do that in C (i.e., xml parsers/writers, etc.)? Also, should I also provide a plain-text output to make it easy for the users (which are also programmers) to get used to xml?

Should I provide a script to translate xml-plaintext? What are your experiences with this subject? Don't just use XML because it's XML. Use XML because:. other applications (that only accept XML) are going to read your output.

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you have an hierarchical data structure that lends itself perfectly for XML. you want to transform the data to other formats using XSL (e.g. To HTML) EDIT: A nice personal experience: Customer: your application MUST be able to read XML. Me: Er, OK, I will adapt my application so it can read XML. Same customer (a few days later): your application MUST be able to read fixed width files, because we just realized our mainframe cannot generate XML. @Amir, I agree with the fact that change should start in increments. But I don't always want to be the first to move to it.

Start using a technology if it is mature enough (which is the case for XML) and you get clear advantages from it (not necessarily the case for this question). If your data is 2-dimensional (relational data, Excel-like data.) then a normal, fixed width file or tab-separated file can be sufficient, and is very easy to parse, and even easier than XML. For hierarchical data I agree that XML may be easier. – Jul 4 '10 at 11:51. Amir, to parse an XML you can use which is incredibly easy to use and start with. Check its for a quick brief, and read carefully the 'what it does not do' clause. Been using it for reading and all I can say is that this tiny library does the job, very well.

As for writing - if your XML files aren't complex you might build them manually with a string object. 'Aren't complex' for me means that you're only going to store text at most. For more complex XML reading/writing you better check which is heavier than TinyXML. I haven't used it yet I've seen it in production and it does deliver it. You can try using the boost::propertytree class. It's pretty easy to use, but the page does warn that it doesn't support the XML format completely. If you do use this though, it gives you the freedom to easily use XML, INI, JSON, or INFO files without changing more than just the readxml line.

If you want that ability though, you should avoid xml attributes. To use an attribute, you have to look at the key, which won't transfer between filetypes (although you can manually create your own subnodes). Although using TinyXML is probably better. I've seen it used before in a couple of projects I've worked on, but don't have any experience with it.