# Trying to pull data out of XML doc using REXML

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trying-to-pull-data-out-of-xml-doc-using-rexml/176129>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 25, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trying-to-pull-data-out-of-xml-doc-using-rexml/176129 "2009-09-25T01:47:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![accipiter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@accipiter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/accipiter)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trying-to-pull-data-out-of-xml-doc-using-rexml/176129/1 "2009-09-25T01:47:15Z")

</div>

I am trying to get some info from an XML doc that kinda looks like:

 ... ... ... ... ... ... 

You get the picture…

I’m trying to write the publication, author list and keyword list to a  
database where the authors and keywords are associated with the  
publication using a has many thru relationship.

The code below works to put the publication in the database, but will  
only write the first author or keyword. I assume I am using REXML  
incorrectly, but can’t figure out how to fix it.

Thanks for any help you can offer…

oh, and this is running as a rake task

task :toDatabase =\> :environment do

require “rexml/document”  
file = File.new(“public/xml\_files/pubFile2009-09-14.xml”)  
doc = REXML::Document.new file  
include REXML

#root = doc.root

```
doc.elements.each('//PUB' ) do |pub|

  thispub = Publication.new(
    :title => pub.elements['TITLE'].nil? ? nil : pub.elements

```

[‘TITLE’].text,  
:abstract =\> pub.elements[‘ABSTRACT’].nil? ? nil :  
pub.elements[‘ABSTRACT’].text,  
:volume =\> pub.elements[‘VOLUME’].nil? ? nil : pub.elements  
[‘VOLUME’].text,  
…  
)  
thispub.save

```
  authors = pub.elements['AUTHORS'] rescue nil
  if authors
    xml_author = authors.elements['AUTHOR']
    if xml_author
      xml_author.each do |author|

        if author
          @name = author.to_s
          if @name then
            @nameArr = @name.split(', ')
            thisauth = Author.new(
              :first_name => @nameArr[1],
              :last_name => @nameArr[0],
              :ours => true
          )
          end
        end

        thisauth.save
        thispub.authors << thisauth
      end
    end
  end

  thispub.save

  pub.elements.each('KEYWORDS') do |tag|

   if tag.elements['KEYWORD']
     thiskeyword = Keyword.find_or_create_by_keyword(tag.elements

```

[‘KEYWORD’].text)  
thispub.keywords \<\< thiskeyword  
end

```
  end

  thispub.save
end

```

end

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![accipiter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@accipiter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/accipiter)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 6:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trying-to-pull-data-out-of-xml-doc-using-rexml/176129/2 "2009-09-29T06:45:11Z")

</div>

Quick tip. Look at Nokogiri before investing much time in parsing with  
REXML.

[http://nokogiri.rubyforge.org/nokogiri/](http://nokogiri.rubyforge.org/nokogiri/)

Besides being faster, the parsing syntax is nicer. Here’s some  
example code for pulling apart Excel exported XML:

> <https://github.com/kete/kete/blob/master/lib/workers/excel_based_importer_worker.rb>

# starting around line 26

You probably want to look for examples of use of the “at” and “xpath”  
methods, too.

Cheers,  
Walter