Accessing XML documents
Before you can parse an XML document using an XML
PARSE
statement, you must make the document available to
your program. Common methods of acquiring an XML document are from a parameter to your
program or by reading the document from a file.
About this task
If the XML document that you want to parse is held in a file, use ordinary COBOL facilities to place the document into a data item in your program:
- A
FILE-CONTROL
entry to define the file to your program. - An
OPEN
statement to open the file. READ
statements to read all the records from the file into a data item (either an elementary item of category alphanumeric or national, or an alphanumeric or national group). You can define the data item in theWORKING-STORAGE SECTION
or theLOCAL-STORAGE SECTION
.- Optionally,
the
STRING
statement to string all of the separate records together into one continuous stream, to remove extraneous blanks, and to handle variable-length records.