XML to comma or tab separated file

["Allison Bloodworth" <abloodworth@berkeley.edu>]

Hi,

We are trying to determine the best way to convert an XML file into a comma
or tab separated file. The problem is that the XML file contains multiple
instances of many elements (e.g. there is one Event Title, but many Event
Sponsors) so it would be hard to do an accurate mapping from field labels to
the data. E.g., from http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4180.txt: 

       field_name,field_name,field_name CRLF
       aaa,bbb,ccc CRLF
       zzz,yyy,xxx CRLF

We could calculate the maximum number of each field and use the maximum
number of each element we found in the field_name line. E.g.

Event_title, Event_Sponsor_1, Event_Sponsor_2, Event_Sponsor_3,
Event_Location, etc.

Aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, eee, ... (for 3 Event Sponsors)
Aaa, bbb, , , eee, ...		(for 1 Event Sponsor)

However, I'm thinking that might result in an overly confusing file for
simpler events.

Any thoughts on this?

Allison Bloodworth
Principal Administrative Analyst
e-Berkeley Program Office
University of California, Berkeley
(415) 377-8243
abloodworth@berkeley.edu