function parseargs(s) local arg = {} string.gsub(s, "([%w%-]+)=([\"'])(.-)%2", function (w, _, a) arg[w] = a end) return arg end function collect(s) local stack = {} local top = {} table.insert(stack, top) local ni,c,label,xarg, empty local i, j = 1, 1 while true do ni,j,c,label,xarg, empty = string.find(s, "<(%/?)([%w:%-]+)(.-)(%/?)>", i) if not ni then break end local text = string.sub(s, i, ni-1) if not string.find(text, "^%s*$") then table.insert(top, text) end if empty == "/" then -- empty element tag table.insert(top, {label=label, xarg=parseargs(xarg), empty=1}) elseif c == "" then -- start tag top = {label=label, xarg=parseargs(xarg)} table.insert(stack, top) -- new level else -- end tag local toclose = table.remove(stack) -- remove top top = stack[#stack] if #stack < 1 then error("nothing to close with "..label) end if toclose.label ~= label then error("trying to close "..toclose.label.." with "..label) end table.insert(top, toclose) end i = j+1 end local text = string.sub(s, i) if not string.find(text, "^%s*$") then table.insert(stack[#stack], text) end if #stack > 1 then error("unclosed "..stack[#stack].label) end return stack[1] end function parseXmlFile(path) local f, e = io.open(path, "r") local xml = f:read("*a") return collect(xml) end