JDOM is, quite simply, a Java representation of an XML document. JDOM provides a way to represent that document for easy and efficient reading, manipulation, and writing. It has a straightforward API, is a lightweight and fast, and is optimized for the Java programmer. It’s an alternative to DOM and SAX, although it integrates well with both DOM and SAX.

JDOM, Java XML parser, is more user friendly in the way of accessing the XML document.

In this example, we show you how to use JDOM to read a XML file, and print out each element orderly.

1. Download the JDOM library

JDOM is not like SAX or DOM, which bundled in JDK. To use JDOM, you need to download the library manually.

Get JDOM from JDOM official site or declares following dependency if you are using Maven.

<dependency>
	<groupId>jdom</groupId>
	<artifactId>jdom</artifactId>
	<version>1.1</version>
</dependency>

2. XML File

XML file as following

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<company>
	<staff>
		<firstname>yong</firstname>
		<lastname>mook kim</lastname>
		<nickname>mkyong</nickname>
		<salary>100000</salary>
	</staff>
	<staff>
		<firstname>low</firstname>
		<lastname>yin fong</lastname>
		<nickname>fong fong</nickname>
		<salary>200000</salary>
	</staff>
</company>

3. Java File

Use JDOM parser to parse above XML file.

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.List;
import org.jdom.Document;
import org.jdom.Element;
import org.jdom.JDOMException;
import org.jdom.input.SAXBuilder;
 
public class ReadXMLFile {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
 
	  SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();
	  File xmlFile = new File("c:\\file.xml");
 
	  try {
 
		Document document = (Document) builder.build(xmlFile);
		Element rootNode = document.getRootElement();
		List list = rootNode.getChildren("staff");
 
		for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
 
		   Element node = (Element) list.get(i);
 
		   System.out.println("First Name : " + node.getChildText("firstname"));
		   System.out.println("Last Name : " + node.getChildText("lastname"));
		   System.out.println("Nick Name : " + node.getChildText("nickname"));
		   System.out.println("Salary : " + node.getChildText("salary"));
 
		}
 
	  } catch (IOException io) {
		System.out.println(io.getMessage());
	  } catch (JDOMException jdomex) {
		System.out.println(jdomex.getMessage());
	  }
	}
}

Output

First Name : yong
Last Name : mook kim
Nick Name : mkyong
Salary : 100000
First Name : low
Last Name : yin fong
Nick Name : fong fong
Salary : 200000


Note
You may also at the following two examples :

  • How to read XML file in Java – (SAX Parser)
  • How to read XML file in Java – (DOM Parser)