Parsing XML - right scripting languages / packages for the job?
perl, python, ruby, xml
Solution
If you are using Perl then I would recommend XML::Simple:
As more and more Web sites begin using XML for their content, it's increasingly important for Web developers to know how to parse XML data and convert it into different formats. That's where the Perl module called XML::Simple comes in. It takes away the drudgery of parsing XML data, making the process easier than you ever thought possible.
Problem
I know that any language is capable of parsing XML; I'm really just looking for advantages or drawbacks that you may have come across in your own experiences. Perl would be my standard go to here, but I'm open to suggestions. Thanks! UPDATE: I ended up going with XML::Simple which did a nice job, but I have one piece of advice if you plan to use it--research the forcearray option first. I had to rewrite a bunch of statements after learning that it is usually best practice to set forcearray. This page had the clearest explanation that I could find. Frankly, I'm surprised this isn't the default behavior.