CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaxml
Mark Mamdouh
Mark Mamdouh

Reputation: 169

Error writing a XML file in java

I am trying to write an xml file using Java and I want to send a variable string to the method document.createElement(var) ,but it gives me that error:

"Exception in thread "main" org.w3c.dom.DOMException: INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: An invalid or illegal XML character is specified. 
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.dom.CoreDocumentImpl.createElement(Unknown Source)
    at eg.edu.alexu.csd.oop.draw.WriteXML.<init>(WriteXML.java:47)
    at eg.edu.alexu.csd.oop.draw.Test.main(Test.java:25)"

this error because var is a variable

public class WriteXML {

public WriteXML() throws FileNotFoundException, ParserConfigurationException, IOException{
    DocumentBuilderFactory docFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
    DocumentBuilder docBuilder = docFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
    Document xmlDoc = docBuilder.newDocument();
    for(int i=0 ; i<shapes.length ; i++){
        //class
        s = shapes[i].getClass().getName().toString();
        Element rootElement =  xmlDoc.createElement(s);
}

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2499

Answers (1)

JeredM
JeredM

Reputation: 997

A number cannot be used as a tag name. Here is a simplified test:

// Generates the error
DocumentBuilderFactory docFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
DocumentBuilder docBuilder = docFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
Document xmlDoc = docBuilder.newDocument();
xmlDoc.createElement("0");

You can use an attribute, or text content, to set the number.

DocumentBuilderFactory docFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
DocumentBuilder docBuilder = docFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
Document xmlDoc = docBuilder.newDocument();
xmlDoc.createElement("Red").setTextContent("0");

XML Specification

I am not sure, but I think the related line is:

[Definition: A Name is an Nmtoken with a restricted set of initial characters.] Disallowed initial characters for Names include digits, diacritics, the full stop and the hyphen.

Upvotes: 1

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