Get line number from xml node - java

Question

I have parsed an XML file and have gotten a Node that I am interested in. How can I now find the line number in the source XML file where this node occurs?

EDIT: Currently I am using the SAXParser to parse my XML. However I will be happy with a solution using any parser.

Along with the Node, I also have the XPath expression for the node.

I need to get the line number because I am displaying the XML file in a textbox, and need to highlight the line where the node occured. Assume that the XML file is nicely formatted with sufficient line breaks.

Answer 1

I have got this working by following this example:

http://eyalsch.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/xml-dom-2/

This solution follows the method suggested by Michael Kay. Here is how you use it:

// XmlTest.java

import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.InputStream;

import org.w3c.dom.Document;
import org.w3c.dom.Node;

public class XmlTest {
    public static void main(final String[] args) throws Exception {

        String xmlString = "<foo>
"
                         + "    <bar>
"
                         + "        <moo>Hello World!</moo>
"
                         + "    </bar>
"
                         + "</foo>";

        InputStream is = new ByteArrayInputStream(xmlString.getBytes());
        Document doc = PositionalXMLReader.readXML(is);
        is.close();

        Node node = doc.getElementsByTagName("moo").item(0);

        System.out.println("Line number: " + node.getUserData("lineNumber"));
    }
}

If you run this program, it will out put: "Line number: 3"

PositionalXMLReader is a slightly modified version of the example linked above.

// PositionalXMLReader.java

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.Stack;

import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;

import org.w3c.dom.Document;
import org.w3c.dom.Element;
import org.w3c.dom.Node;
import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
import org.xml.sax.Locator;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;

public class PositionalXMLReader {
    final static String LINE_NUMBER_KEY_NAME = "lineNumber";

    public static Document readXML(final InputStream is) throws IOException, SAXException {
        final Document doc;
        SAXParser parser;
        try {
            final SAXParserFactory factory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
            parser = factory.newSAXParser();
            final DocumentBuilderFactory docBuilderFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
            final DocumentBuilder docBuilder = docBuilderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
            doc = docBuilder.newDocument();
        } catch (final ParserConfigurationException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Can't create SAX parser / DOM builder.", e);
        }

        final Stack<Element> elementStack = new Stack<Element>();
        final StringBuilder textBuffer = new StringBuilder();
        final DefaultHandler handler = new DefaultHandler() {
            private Locator locator;

            @Override
            public void setDocumentLocator(final Locator locator) {
                this.locator = locator; // Save the locator, so that it can be used later for line tracking when traversing nodes.
            }

            @Override
            public void startElement(final String uri, final String localName, final String qName, final Attributes attributes)
                    throws SAXException {
                addTextIfNeeded();
                final Element el = doc.createElement(qName);
                for (int i = 0; i < attributes.getLength(); i++) {
                    el.setAttribute(attributes.getQName(i), attributes.getValue(i));
                }
                el.setUserData(LINE_NUMBER_KEY_NAME, String.valueOf(this.locator.getLineNumber()), null);
                elementStack.push(el);
            }

            @Override
            public void endElement(final String uri, final String localName, final String qName) {
                addTextIfNeeded();
                final Element closedEl = elementStack.pop();
                if (elementStack.isEmpty()) { // Is this the root element?
                    doc.appendChild(closedEl);
                } else {
                    final Element parentEl = elementStack.peek();
                    parentEl.appendChild(closedEl);
                }
            }

            @Override
            public void characters(final char ch[], final int start, final int length) throws SAXException {
                textBuffer.append(ch, start, length);
            }

            // Outputs text accumulated under the current node
            private void addTextIfNeeded() {
                if (textBuffer.length() > 0) {
                    final Element el = elementStack.peek();
                    final Node textNode = doc.createTextNode(textBuffer.toString());
                    el.appendChild(textNode);
                    textBuffer.delete(0, textBuffer.length());
                }
            }
        };
        parser.parse(is, handler);

        return doc;
    }
}