[sf-perl] Some well-formed XML?

[chris mungall]

On Sep 22, 2005, at 9:11 AM, Josh Berkus wrote:

> Andrew,
>
>> Example:
>> ColumnB is not null and not empty:
>> <ColumnA>123</ColumnA><ColumnB>MyString</ColumnB><ColumnC>456</ 
>> ColumnC>
>>
>> ColumnB is not null, but is an empty string:
>> <ColumnA>123</ColumnA><ColumnB></ColumnB><ColumnC>456</ColumnC>
>>
>> ColumnB is null:
>> <ColumnA>123</ColumnA><ColumnC>456</ColumnC>
>
> Are XML parsers going to treat (2) any differently from (3), though?
> That is, if I hand an XML application (2), might it return (3) instead
> or vice-versa?

I believe all XML parsers should treat #2 differently from #3

However, the problem with this solution is that it precludes the  
possibility of using XML to specify subsets of the list of columns, for  
example with update operations

> Also, what about data types which don't support zero-length-strings
> (ZLS), like dates?
>
> My general inclination would be to treat all ZLS as NULLs in the
> database, unless I have a specific reason to do otherwise or unless the
> value is defined as "required" in the DTD.
>
> Anyway, this is *terrific* food for thought.  BTW, what was the name of
> the CPAN module for SQL-->XML conversion which was demoed at SFPerl
> abotu 6months ago?

I don't think it was as long as 6 months ago..

DBIx::DBStag

http://stag.sourceforge.net

> --Josh
> _______________________________________________
> SanFrancisco-pm mailing list
> SanFrancisco-pm at pm.org
> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/sanfrancisco-pm