XML to Swift

XML to Swift struct generation analyses an XML document and produces Swift struct definitions that model its element and attribute structure. The generated structs can be used with XMLDecoder from Foundation or with the XMLCoder open-source library.

Implement XMLParserDelegate and handle didStartElement, foundCharacters, and didEndElement callbacks. SAX parsing is memory-efficient for large documents but requires manual state tracking. The generated Codable struct acts as the target model — hydrate it in the delegate callbacks as elements are encountered.

Swift's Codable protocol does not natively support XML. Use XMLParser (event-driven, low memory) or a third-party library like SwiftyXMLParser or AEXML (DOM-style, easier to use). Codable is ideal for JSON; for XML, pick the library that matches your document size and navigation needs.

XMLParser provides the namespaceURI parameter in didStartElement callbacks. Use it to distinguish elements with the same local name but different namespaces. The generated Swift struct ignores namespaces — in your parser delegate, filter by both localName and namespaceURI if the document uses multiple namespaces.

Not automatically — Swift has no built-in XML serialiser for custom types. Use a library like XMLCoder (supports Codable for XML) which adds encode/decode XML support similar to JSONEncoder. Add @Attribute annotations to mark which properties should be XML attributes vs elements.