coin_xml_parsing(3)

🦋 NAME 🦋

okay bestie, welcome to coin_xml_parsing — this is the Coin manual page all about XML Parsing with Coin. yes, it's a (3) — library function energy, we're in the C/C++ section, we're thriving 💅

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so for Coin 3.0, the devs literally added an XML parser to Coin, and this whole doc is here to tell you how to use it for generic purposes. slay.

🎀 why another XML parser tho?

not me anticipating your question, bestie 💀

1. first of all — the XML parser is actually a 3rd-party parser, and its name is Expat.
2. Coin needed one. and honestly, a whole bunch of Coin-dependent projects needed one too. so obviously they had to expose an API for it.
3. but here's the plot twist 🫶 — when you integrate a 3rd-party parser into Coin, you cannot just expose its API directly. why? because other projects that are also using Expat would get conflicts. messy. not the vibe.
4. so they had to expose the XML API through a unique API instead — hence the API you're looking at right now.

it's based on an XML DOM API that's been used in a couple of other projects, but it got tweaked to fit into Coin and to be wrapped over Expat. (fun fact: the original implementation just used flex. periodt.)

🧚 streaming AND DOM? both? iconic

the XML parser is both a streaming parser and a DOM parser. no cap, she contains multitudes.

• as a streaming parser: documents can be read in without having to be fully contained in memory. lowkey efficient.
• as a DOM parser: the whole document gets fully parsed in first, and then client code inspects it by traversing the DOM.

and the wildest part? the two modes can actually be mixed arbitrarily — if ending up with a partial DOM sounds useful to you. do with that what you will 💅

💖 C API vs C++ API

the XML parser has both a C API and a C++ API. the C++ API is just a wrapper around the C API, and it only serves as a convenience if you prefer to read/write C++ code — which is tighter — over more verbose C code. choose your fighter 🫶

🌸 the naming convention (iykyk)

ngl the C API naming convention may look a bit strange... unless you've written libraries to be wrapped for scheme/lisp-like languages before. in that case you already know the vibe: you suffix your functions based on their behaviour/usage meaning.

• mutating functions get suffixed with "!" — or "_x" for (eXclamation point) 💅
• predicates get suffixed with "?" — or "_p" in C ✨

🍓 the simplest way to use it

bestie, if you just want the quickest possible win, literally just call cc_xml_read_file(filename) and then traverse the DOM model using:

• cc_xml_doc_get_root()
• cc_xml_elt_get_child()
• cc_xml_elt_get_attr()

that's it. that's the whole glow-up 🎀

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👀 See also

• XML
• cc_xml_doc
• cc_xml_elt
• cc_xml_attr

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this was Version 4.0.10, dated Thu Jun 25 2026 00:00:00 — go forth and parse some XML, you absolute main character 👑💖✨