Here's the XML in TextEdit:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<contaminants>

<element>

<name>1,1-DCE</name>

<rating>7.0</rating>

</element>

<element>

<name>1,1-dichloroethene</name>

<rating>7.0</rating>

</element>

<element>

<name>1,1-dichloroethylene</name>

<rating>7.0</rating>

</element>

<element>

<name>aluminum</name>

<rating>3.0</rating>

</element>

<element>

<name>americium-241</name>

<rating>11.0</rating>

</element>

<element>

<name>antimony</name>

<rating>7.0</rating>

</element>

<element>

<name>aroclor-1260</name>

<rating>8.0</rating>

</element>

<element>

<name>arsenic</name>

<rating>7.0</rating>

</element>

</contaminants> 

**there are about 200 more element sets that i haven't typed out here.

and this is the code thus far:

(my professor has been helping me with this but he encouraged me to post it on the forum when he got stuck.. he'll be monitoring this as well)

//XML test example

XMLElement my_xml;

void setup() 

{

  size(200, 200);

  my_xml = new XMLElement(this, "contaminants.xml");

  // Get all  elements

  XMLElement[]contaminants=my_xml.getChildren();

  

  println(contaminants.length);

  

//  for (int i = 0; i < contaminants.length; i++) 

//  //skip the first two elements 

//  {

//    XMLElement contaminant = contaminants[i].getChild(0);

//    String x = contaminant.getName();

//    println(x);

//  }

}