Topic

Tooling

Clients, formatters, linters and CLIs worth installing. Small tools that save hours.

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

JSONGuide

Comparing and Patching JSON Documents Without Surprises

A tested guide to diffing, patching and merging JSON: normalizing, array identity, JSON Patch, Merge Patch, atomic apply, deep merge, history and tests.

17 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

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

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

XML

SOAP Responses and Pulling the Payload Out With XPath

Take a SOAP envelope apart: Header, Body, the namespaced response and a Fault, then read the price from the payload in Python without a client library.

6 min read

YAMLGuide

Choosing YAML TOML JSON or INI for Config Without Regret

Pick a config format by who edits it and what reads it. One config tested in YAML, TOML, JSON, INI and more: types, traps, errors, size and switching cost.

17 min read

Get new articles by email

We send one email when a new article is published. No spam.