Streaming API for XML (StAX) is an application programming interface (API) to read and write XML documents, originating from the Java programming language community.
Traditionally, XML APIs are either: Both have advantages: DOM, for example, allows for random access to the document, and event driven algorithm like SAX has a small memory footprint and is typically much faster.
The application moves the cursor forward - 'pulling' the information from the parser as it needs.
StAX has its roots in a number of incompatible pull APIs for XML, most notably XMLPULL, the authors of which (Stefan Haustein and Aleksander Slominski) collaborated with, amongst others, BEA Systems, Oracle, Sun and James Clark.
Quote: Competing and complementary ways to process XML in Java (the order is loosely based on initial date of introduction):