Re: How to convert CSV row to Java object?
Leonardo Azpurua wrote:
Perhaps you might help me.
Since all the buzz with XML started several years ago, I've been scratching
my head trying to understand what actual advantages it might bring when used
to process files whose data structures are known and agreed upon in advance.
So far, with the exception of being able to boast that your application is
buzzword-compliant, I have found none. On the other hand, I have found
several "cons": depending on a library that is probably less efficient than
a traditional line oriented simple parser, overloading your project with
dependencies plus you have to learn a new formalization for which not many
good input editors exist (so, you must write code to turn source input into
XML, which is alsao more complex than just concatenating and expanding
strings).
The advantages of XML are that it provides semantically void, human-readable,
precise and straightforward representation of structured information. Its
associated formalisms provide a ready-made panoply of ways to express
specification and transformation rules. It is less susceptible to alignment
error and such.
And in this particular case, what is the point in having to learn XML to
write a barely readable definition instead of using Java (or any language),
which you already know and that may achieve the same results with probably
the same writing (and probably less thinking) effort?
I think that would be the wrong reason to learn XML. I would suggest rather
learning XML to write eminently readable and unambiguous contracts and
embodiments. Certainly context and content are more readable and more readily
associated in an XML document than a raw CSV file.
I never endorse doing less thinking.
I mean, if you have a CSV file, you may just read the lines, split them,
convert the data items that need to be converted and store the individual
values in an object.
Isn't all that XMLing a sort of overkill?
Depends, but often not. I mean, if you have an XML file, all you have to do
is just plop on one of the many standard frameworks onto them, let it convert
the items for you that need to be converted and store for you individual
values pretty much anywhere you want. It also lets you separate concerns
beautifully between, say, parsing and processing of content.
--
Lew