83. What are the differences between SAX and DOM parser.

Posted on September 27, 2006 by sharat
SAX DOM
Both SAX and DOM are used to parse the XML document. Both has advantages and disadvantages and can be used in our programming depending on the situation.
Parses node by node Stores the entire XML document into memory before processing
Doesn’t store the XML in memory Occupies more memory
We cant insert or delete a node We can insert or delete nodes
Top to bottom traversing Traverse in any direction.
SAX is an event based parser DOM is a tree model parser
SAX is a Simple API for XML Document Object Model (DOM) API
import javax.xml.parsers.*;
import org.xml.sax.*;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.*;		 import javax.xml.parsers.*;
import org.w3c.dom.*;
 
doesn’t preserve comments preserves comments
SAX generally runs a little faster than DOM SAX generally runs a little faster than DOM
If we need to find a node and doesn’t need to insert or delete we can go with SAX itself otherwise DOM provided we have more memory.

Filed under: XML |

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49 Responses

  1. chandra, on November 15, 2006 at 2:20 pm said:

    Nice and clear points gien. The concept is very clear.

    Reply
  2. vino, on December 28, 2006 at 9:46 am said:

    Very Nice help 🙂

    great work 🙂

    Reply
  3. Arvind Ajimal, on January 9, 2007 at 12:39 pm said:

    One more thing……..

    SAX: in a class or application module where you need to read the XML file and then do some processing, SAX adds the disadvantage of completing the work then and there only. next in another part, but same application scope, you need to read and know the xml, do everything again.
    DOM: since the xml is in the memory in an object form, you can utilise here and then there, means in some next step, provided u have memory and you keep the Objectified XML in memory, so no need to do the DOM code again.

    Reply
  4. josh, on May 17, 2007 at 5:21 am said:

    yes i got the points,,, thank you

    Reply
  5. joshua, on June 2, 2007 at 9:34 am said:

    Really good.
    Thanks

    Reply
  6. Santosh, on July 18, 2007 at 9:54 am said:

    this is ok

    Reply
  7. Sanish, on July 25, 2007 at 2:19 pm said:

    The conscept is very clear from the comparison itself…
    Thanks

    Reply
  8. Pramod Kumar Singh, on August 10, 2007 at 2:58 pm said:

    Really so nice difference.

    Reply
  9. Ankit, on September 12, 2007 at 2:07 pm said:

    Definitely great help for the beginers ….nicely written

    Reply
  10. anu, on December 26, 2007 at 6:10 am said:

    good difference for understanding

    Reply
  11. Avanish, on December 30, 2007 at 9:22 am said:

    Nice Differences..This is clear all my concept over the two parsers and also clear when to use one. Thanks a ton

    Reply
  12. Neeraj, on January 21, 2008 at 4:43 am said:

    Complete difference in very simple words. Thanks a lot dear !!!!

    Reply
  13. abn, on February 14, 2008 at 7:15 am said:

    Very fine and simple difference, Thank u lot

    Reply
  14. Nagendra, on February 20, 2008 at 10:18 pm said:

    Excellent explanation

    Reply
  15. Roopa Keshava Reddy, on February 26, 2008 at 4:38 am said:

    Clear Explanation Thank you.

    Reply
  16. Kalaivani, on March 5, 2008 at 10:56 am said:

    Understandable points.. thanku 🙂

    Reply
  17. Nishanth, on March 11, 2008 at 2:50 am said:

    Thanx for giving information….

    I got more help to my internal Xmzz….

    Reply
  18. Ultimate Star "Imran", on March 25, 2008 at 10:50 am said:

    ITS Ultimate site for Java and etc…..and Gud explanation

    Reply
  19. kash, on April 10, 2008 at 9:44 am said:

    clear basic concept 🙂

    Reply
  20. venkat, on May 3, 2008 at 4:43 pm said:

    It is simple & sweet and upto the point
    Thanks

    Reply
  21. Anaon, on May 15, 2008 at 6:50 pm said:

    Agree to all the praising comments

    Reply
  22. Anon, on May 15, 2008 at 6:51 pm said:

    Great explaination. Thanks
    http://www.google.com

    Reply
  23. Srikanth, on May 22, 2008 at 11:43 am said:

    Good Explanation,

    Many Thanks ,Srikanth

    Reply
  24. Ravikiran, on July 9, 2008 at 6:18 am said:

    Extraordinary work . keep posting such messages.simply great. Thanx lot sharat

    Reply
  25. Sameer, on July 10, 2008 at 5:48 am said:

    its nice ..thanx for help…very clear difference.

    Reply
  26. srujana, on August 16, 2008 at 4:42 am said:

    thanks for giving clear information about dom & sax

    Reply
  27. Java interview Questions « Java Stuff, on September 13, 2008 at 1:49 pm said:

    […] post info By Nagaraju Categories: Uncategorized Tags: dom, java, java interview questions, sax What are the differences between SAX and DOM parser. […]

    Reply
  28. Java Interview, on October 14, 2008 at 6:15 pm said:

    Short and sweet!!

    Reply
  29. sreenivasula reddy, on October 21, 2008 at 8:00 am said:

    its verygood answer

    Reply
  30. arvind, on October 29, 2008 at 3:12 pm said:

    thanks a lot . it was a very good explanation

    Reply
  31. santhosh, on December 17, 2008 at 9:54 pm said:

    Crystal clear. good work

    Reply
  32. ojaswini, on December 25, 2008 at 7:30 am said:

    thanx…..the data provided is absolutely apt and understandable….good work

    Reply
  33. Alan, on January 25, 2009 at 12:31 pm said:

    Excellent, expressed in a nut shell, thanks.

    Reply
  34. chellam, on March 22, 2009 at 7:57 am said:

    thanks:)

    Reply
  35. Niranjan, on June 14, 2009 at 9:17 am said:

    Very clear and straight forward……can be understand easily

    Reply
  36. Iqbal Jamadar, on July 14, 2009 at 10:24 am said:

    Short and to the point.
    Excellent…!! Thanks.

    Reply
  37. ckiran, on July 22, 2009 at 12:49 pm said:

    nice work . i need one more diff

    which is best for two ( xml to java and java to xml ) either DOM or SAX.

    Reply
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    Reply
  39. anon, on November 28, 2009 at 4:10 am said:

    You may want to look at vtd-xml as the state of the art in XML processing, consuming far less memory than DOM

    vtd-xml

    Reply
  40. Darron Altiery, on February 4, 2010 at 2:05 pm said:

    Shemale posts are the best stress relief ever

    Reply
  41. Dominatrix slave, on March 6, 2010 at 2:12 pm said:

    I would like to read more stuff like this one

    Reply
  43. omkar, on August 1, 2010 at 7:50 am said:

    tell me in which cases dom parser is advantageous than SAX

    Reply
  44. ranjnai, on February 9, 2011 at 8:48 am said:

    it sounds good…will be far better on further explanation….

    Reply
  45. Mahes, on January 21, 2012 at 12:26 am said:

    It is a nice difference and explanation.

    Reply
  46. Thiago Marinho, on January 27, 2012 at 7:08 pm said:

    Very good, I needed this topic!

    tks vy much!

    Reply
  47. veerapandiyan, on July 21, 2012 at 7:38 am said:

    really useful to all

    Reply
  48. Erwin@MyWealthyJourney, on November 17, 2012 at 6:21 am said:

    wow great and info and good table comparison. Helps me better understands sax and dom. thanks a lot.

    Reply
  49. krish, on February 20, 2014 at 5:34 am said:

    thankz lot

    Reply

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