Library

Everything you need to level up your coding skills.

YAML

Converting JSON to YAML Without Losing Types or Quotes

Convert JSON to YAML with a YAML library so strings like yes, 3.10 and 02134 keep their quotes, and see what string formatting does to the same data.

7 min read

XML

DOM Versus SAX Versus StAX Parsing in Java Compared

The three Java XML APIs on one 36.6 MB file: DOM ran out of memory at a 256 MB heap and took 1.03 s with 1 GB, while SAX and StAX ran in 32 MB in about 0.3 s.

7 min read

XML

Splitting a Big XML File by Repeating Element Safely

Split a 36.6 MB XML file into eight valid files of 25,000 orders with iterparse in 1.5 seconds at 21 MB, and see why split -l produces broken XML.

6 min read

YAML

Converting YAML to JSON in Python Without Date Errors

Convert YAML to JSON with PyYAML and json, and handle the cases that break it: dates, sets, integer keys, NaN, anchors, several documents and complex keys.

6 min read

XML

Merging Several XML Files Into One Valid Document Safely

Why cat breaks XML, and three ways that work: XInclude with xmllint, XSLT with document(), and lxml, with the xml:base attribute side effect of XInclude.

7 min read

XML

Counting Nodes in XML From the Shell Without Miscounting

grep counts lines, not elements. Count XML elements correctly with xmllint, xmlstarlet and a streaming parser, and see why grep gave 20000 for 49819 lines.

6 min read

XML

Using yq to Read XML From the Command Line and Pipelines

Two different tools are called yq. Both read XML and print JSON or YAML, with different prefixes for attributes. See each one's output and which you have.

6 min read

XML

Editing XML Files in Place From a Script Without Damage

Change a value, add an attribute and delete an element in XML from a script with xmlstarlet or lxml, and compare with sed on diffs, comments and escaping.

6 min read

XML

Extracting Values With xmlstarlet From the Shell Fast

Select values, make delimited lines, count nodes, list element paths and sort with xmlstarlet sel, and avoid the escaped ampersand in its default text output.

6 min read

JSONGuide

Converting JSON to CSV XML YAML and Excel Without Surprises

A working guide to converting JSON to CSV, XML, YAML, Excel, SQL and Markdown and back: what each format cannot hold, a 23 field round trip test, and checks.

18 min read

XML

Formatting XML With xmllint for Readable Diffs and Reviews

Pretty-print one-line XML with xmllint, set the indent, strip blank text for stable diffs, get canonical form and change encoding, and see what it alters.

7 min read

XML

Reading Microsoft Project and Visio XML Exports in Python

Read a Microsoft Project XML plan into tasks with durations, start dates, percent complete and predecessors, and learn how Visio files are zipped XML.

6 min read

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