Comparing StAX to Other JAXP APIs

As an API in the JAXP family, StAX can be compared, among other APIs, to SAX, TrAX, and JDOM. Of the latter two, StAX is not as powerful or flexible as TrAX or JDOM, but neither does it require as much memory or processor load to be useful, and StAX can, in many cases, outperform the DOM-based APIs. The same arguments outlined above, weighing the cost/benefits of the DOM model versus the streaming model, apply here.

With this in mind, the closest comparisons between can be made between StAX and SAX, and it is here that StAX offers features that are beneficial in many cases; some of these include:

StAX-enabled clients are generally easier to code than SAX clients. While it can be argued that SAX parsers are marginally easier to write, StAX parser code can be smaller and the code necessary for the client to interact with the parser simpler.


StAX is a bidirectional API, meaning that it can both read and write XML documents. SAX is read only, so another API is needed if you want to write XML documents.


SAX is a push API, whereas StAX is pull. The trade-offs between push and pull APIs outlined above apply here.

Feature	StAX	SAX	DOM	TrAX
API Type	Pull, streaming	Push, streaming	In memory tree	XSLT Rule
Ease of Use	High	Medium	High	Medium
XPath Capability	No	No	Yes	Yes
CPU and Memory Efficiency	Good	Good	Varies	Varies
Forward Only	Yes	Yes	No	No
Read XML	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Write XML	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Create, Read, Update, Delete	No	No	Yes	No