Java converts strings to XML and parses nodes

See the English answer > how to parse a string containing XML in Java and retrieve the value of the root node? 6

Do I need to parse this string and get the text in the error message?

My string looks like this:

<response>
<returnCode>-2</returnCode>
<error>
<errorCode>100</errorCode>
<errorMessage>ERROR HERE!!!</errorMessage>
</error>
</response>

Is it better to parse a string or convert it to XML and then parse it?

Solution

I use Java's XML document library It's a bit messy, but it works

String xml = "<response>\n" +
             "<returnCode>-2</returnCode>\n" +
             "<error>\n" +
             "<errorCode>100</errorCode>\n" +
             "<errorMessage>ERROR HERE!!!</errorMessage>\n" +
             "</error>\n" +
             "</response>";
Document doc = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance()
                                     .newDocumentBuilder()
                                     .parse(new InputSource(new StringReader(xml)));

NodeList errNodes = doc.getElementsByTagName("error");
if (errNodes.getLength() > 0) {
    Element err = (Element)errNodes.item(0);
    System.out.println(err.getElementsByTagName("errorMessage")
                          .item(0)
                          .getTextContent());
} else { 
        // success
}