XML C SAX based low-level decode functions handle the transformation of XML simple type content into C type program variable data using a SAX interface. Calls to these functions are assembled in the C SAX handler source code generated by the XBinder compiler to decode complex XML schema-based messages. They are normally invoked from within a generated SAX endElement function to parse buffered data that was collected in a SAX characters function.

These functions are also directly callable from within a user's application program if the need to decode a primitive data item exists. Note, however, that the low-level C decode functions only decode the data within XML tagged fields, not the tags themselves. Thus, it is not possible to directly decode a string such as <myInt>10</myInt> by calling these functions. It would only be possible to convert “10” into a C integer value. To parse the entire XML string, it would be necessary to invoke the XML parser with registered SAX handlers that could parse all of the items.

A complete reference to all of the built-in C XML encode functions is available in the XBinder C/C++ Runtime Reference Manual.