3.3. The Simple API for XML

The Simple API for XML (SAX) is an interface for event-based XML parsing, developed collaboratively by the members of the XML-DEV mailing list, xml-dev@ic.ac.uk. Widespread adoption of SAX by many parser developers has made it a de facto industry standard.

SAX arose out of the need to reuse XML parsers as software components, but to extend them for application-specific use. For example, if you wanted to develop an application that processed INVOICE documents represented in XML, then you would need to use an XML parser to read and extract the data. All applications that process XML must encounter this step. However, not all applications process the INVOICE document identically. SAX allows an application to receive the ...

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