Structure text conversion to XML

[PEDRAZA4]

I have a txt file that was exported from a system, this file is following a structure form. I would like to convert this file into xml format in order to do a report. An example of the file is described below. STEP NAME="LAST_STEP" { RECTANGLE= { X=945 Y=372 H=40 W=100 } ACTION NAME="A1" { DESCRIPTION="Step msg" ACTION_TYPE=ASSIGN QUALIFIER=P EXPRESSION="'^/MSG.CV' := ""Calc Complete. Press Start to Transfer.""" DELAY_TIME=0 } ACTION NAME="A3" { DESCRIPTION="Enable Subordinate Failures" ACTION_TYPE=ASSIGN QUALIFIER=P EXPRESSION="'^/MONITOR/SUB1_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB2_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB3_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB4_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB5_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB6_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB7_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB8_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB9_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB10_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB11_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB12_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB13_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB14_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB15_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;'^/MONITOR/SUB16_FAIL/DISABLE.CV' := 0;" DELAY_TIME=0 }

[Ingolme]

Is this meant to be done manually or automtically? If it's automatic, what programming languages do you have available?

[PEDRAZA4]

The process should be performed automatically, since I'm only showing part of the txt file ( the complete file has a lot of code similar to what I present.I don't know what is used to convert the file to the format that I present due that this is a proprietary software. In terms of the software available that I could use, I'm open to suggestion. I have experienced with C++ and visual basic, but if there is a more easy way I will use it

[Ingolme]

This might not be absolutely necessary for you at the moment, as it's an entire field of study in computer science, but knowing grammar (computer science term) would give you a good idea how to make the program: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_grammarBut to break this down to a simple algorithm you could build, you must define a set of rules for the source and target languages, and then read and write following those rules.Your language seems a bit complicated, because you have two cases where different syntaxes are used for the same purpose:

STEP NAME="LAST_STEP"{

and

RECTANGLE={

You must define a list of all the rules that your syntax follows. Here's a couple of them:

1. The first few characters from A-Z (and maybe 0-9?) define the type of object.
2. After a type identifier can go three things:* An opening curly bracket indicating a set of objects that are children to this one.* An equals sign, indicating that this object has one value. The value of this object follows the equals sign and has its own set of rules which need to be defined.* A syntax with its own set of rules (A-Z0-9 followed by an = and then a values which may be quoted) indicating a property of the object. Following this syntax must go the curly brace mentioned before.

And so on, I could keep defining all the rules your document follows, but only you know for certain what characters are and aren't allowed in each part.