Re: [xml-dev] sax2, ignorable whitespace

["David Megginson" <david.megginson@gmail.com>]

On 20/11/06, Dave Pawson <davep@dpawson.co.uk> wrote:

>    Manos suggested (offlist) dumping input to the characters() callback
> which is ws only. Nice and simple.

That will work with some parsers and not others -- it all depends on
how they chunk their whitespace.  For example, if you have the text
input "a b\nc d", all of the following sequences of calls to
characters would be possible (along with a few others):

"a b\nc d"
"a b","\n","c d"
"a"," ","b","\n","c"," ","d"
"a ","b\n","c ","d"
(etc.)

If the parser you're happening to use chunks whitespace so that Mano's
suggestion works, feel free to use it, but remember that (a) you're
relying on an undocumented feature that could change with the next
parser upgrade, and (b) there's a good chance that your app will break
if you change to a different SAX parser.


All the best,


David