If you're going to parse an XML document, the first thing you need is a parser. One of the beauties of XML is that it is platform- and language-neutral. There are parsers available for every programming language I know of, and I'm sure some I've never heard of. In the next few tips, however, I'm going to focus on Java--and as luck would have it, the writers at the WebReference/XML site have recently done a comparison of the most popular Java XML parsers. Check out their helpful article, and then grab yourself a copy of Sun's Java-based XML Parser, JAXP, so you can follow along in the days to come.

XML Parser Comparison

Java API for XML Parsing (JAXP)