Cookbooks
Elixir
Chapter 10. Data Formats and Serialization
Working with XML

Elixir:
Working with XML

How to:

Elixir doesn’t include XML parsing in its standard library. SweetXML is a popular choice. Here’s how to use it:

# Add SweetXML to your dependencies in mix.exs
{:sweet_xml, "~> 0.6"}

# In your code
import SweetXml

xml = """
<note>
  <to>Tove</to>
  <from>Jani</from>
  <heading>Reminder</heading>
  <body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
"""

# Parse XML
note = xml |> xpath(~x"//note")
to = xml |> xpath(~x"//note/to" |> inner_text())
IO.puts to # Output: Tove

Deep Dive

XML, or Extensible Markup Language, has been around since the late 90s. It’s verbose but structured—ideal for complex data interchange. While JSON’s popularity soared for its simplicity, XML remains entrenched in many enterprise and financial systems for its expressiveness and standardized schemas.

Alternatives include:

  • JSON for lighter, less verbose data exchange.
  • Protobuf or Thrift for binary serialized data communication, particularly for internal systems.

Under the hood, XML libraries for Elixir leverage Erlang’s :xmerl library for parsing, which provides robust support but can be less intuitive than more modern approaches. As Elixir evolves, community-driven libraries like SweetXML wrap these with a more Elixir-esque syntax, making XML manipulations more accessible.

See Also:

Working with TOMLWorking with YAML