At 12:10 PM -0500 1/12/08, Eric Butera wrote:
>On 1/12/08, Naz Gassiep <naz@mira.net> wrote:
>> I'm using simplexml to fetch data from a set of data files. If I have
>> two files, and one is an update to the other, is there an easy way to
>> merge the two files together, rather than having write logic that checks
>> one and then the other?
>>
>> Both files conform to the same DTD and thus the data in the update will
>> perfectly eclipse the data in the main file. If I can do this it would
>> save me writing a whole bunch of logic.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> - Naz.
>>
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>>
>>
>
>diff!


....Although your standard diff wouldn't account for files that parse
identically but have slightly different but functionally identical
XML (eg; differing case/whitespace in tags, different order of
attributes). That's what tools like XMLdiff (python) -

http://www.logilab.org/project/xmldiff

- xmldiff (perl) -

http://www.xml.com/pub/r/1354

- xmldiffpatch (MS executable) -

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa302294.aspx

- and probably numerous others are for. Here's a possibly-useful article:

http://www.xmlhack.com/read.php?item=1681

Disclaimer: I've never used any of those tools, so YMMV, IANAL, RTFM,
LOL, etc...

steve


--
+--------------- my people are the people of the dessert, ---------------+
| Steve Edberg http://pgfsun.ucdavis.edu/ |
| UC Davis Genome Center sbedberg@ucdavis.edu |
| Bioinformatics programming/database/sysadmin (530)754-9127 |
+---------------- said t e lawrence, picking up his fork ----------------+