Convert XML to pipe delimited text

Shiji Pan

1 year ago

Want to convert XML file to TXT (“|” pipe delimited text) file?

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Convert XML to TXT (“|” pipe delimited text)

“Start a New Convert” for “XML to TXT”.

Select From “File” “XML” To “File” “TXT”.

Support large XML file ( > 4GB ).

Source XML file’s content is like this:

After converting, you can view the output TXT (“|” pipe delimited text) file.

Value kind	in XML	in Pipe-delimited text
Int	`<int>1234</int>`	`1234`
Bigint	`<bigint>9007199254740993</bigint>`	`9007199254740993`
Decimal	`<decimal>1234.56</decimal>`	`1234.56`
Float	`<float>1.234e10</float>`	`1.234e+10`
Text	`<char>text</char>`	`quoted only when it contains a pipe or a quote`
Long text	`<text>multi-line text</text> (entities for & <)`	`must be quoted; line breaks inside force multi-line records`
Date	`<date>2026-09-18</date> (xs:date with an XSD)`	`2026-09-18`
Datetime	`<datetime>2026-09-18T14:30:00Z</datetime> (xs:dateTime)`	`2026-09-18 14:30:00`
Binary	`<blob>base64...</blob> (xs:base64Binary)`	`not representable - base64 or hex string`
Boolean	`<bool>true</bool>`	`TRUE / FALSE, or 1 / 0 depending on the writer`
JSON	`escaped inside an element, or its own sub-tree`	`the whole JSON value quoted, with internal quotes doubled`

Both XML and Pipe-delimited text are file formats, so what differs below is how each one chooses to represent a value.

Property	in XML	in Pipe-delimited text
identifiers	`Attribute values in quotes; entities (& < >) for ...`	`Double quotes; a literal quote is doubled ("" )`
dates	`Text (xs:date / xs:dateTime when an XSD is in play)`	`Conventional text: 2026-09-18 or 2026-09-18 14:30:00`
binary	`base64Binary / hexBinary inside text`	`Not supported`
separator	`Tags, not delimiters`	`Pipe "\|"`
encoding	`Declared in the XML declaration`	`No declaration - UTF-8 works only with a BOM`
typing	`None in the markup itself`	`None - every field is text`
shape	`Arbitrary tree`	`Flat table, optional header row`
ceiling	`Whole document is usually parsed into memory`	`No formal limit; row count bounded by memory`

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