convert xml structure to another

[benniii]

hei there, i'm slowly going maaad!
i'm pretty new to xml and i need to convert one structure into a (for me seemingly totally) different one. here's an excerpt of what i'm trying to do:

old xml structure:

 <row>
        <forum>forum 1</forum>
        <title>topic 1</title>
        <date>2009-09-22 15:22:24</date>
        <poster>benniii</poster>
        <content>content test 1</content>
    </row>
 <row>
        <forum>forum 1</forum>
        <title>topic 1</title>
        <date>2009-09-23 16:11:22</date>
        <poster>thomas</poster>
        <content>content test 2</content>
    </row>
    <row>
        <forum>forum 2</forum>
        <title>topic 1</title>
        <date>2009-09-06 14:36:21</date>
        <poster>benniii</poster>
        <content>content test 3</content>
    </row>

xml structure i'm desperately trying to achieve

   <topic forum="forum 1" title="topic 1">
      <message posted="2009-09-22 15:22:24" by="benniii">content test 1</message>
      <message posted="2009-09-23 16:11:22" by="thomas">content test 2</message>
   </topic>
  <topic forum="forum 2" title="topic 1">
      <message posted="2009-09-06 14:36:21" by="benniii">content test 3</message>
   </topic>

i'd be dyingly gracious for any clue how to get this to work.

if the above is totally misunderstanding, here's a screenshot of the structure i need:

thanks so much,
benni

[Dormilich]

which language are you allowed to accomplish that?

[benniii]

i'm sorry i'm really a newbie to this.. what do you mean with 'which language'?
basically, i just need the first part of code's structure to look like the second. i've heard some stuff about xslt and that it might be able to convert it as needed, but i have no clue

thanks for your reply, so far.

[Dormilich]

yes, XSLT is able to do that conversion, but it's not the only one. pretty much every programming language (e.g. C++, Java, PHP, C#, ...) that is able to read XML can do that conversion as well.

and tbh, I'd rather use a programming language than XSLT.

[benniii]

ok .. but .. i have no idea how to do so ..

isn't there any way to do this "simply" or online or somewhat?
some scheme you input as an algorythm or something, to then convert the old structure into the new one?

it's basically just this very one set of data in the above structure i need to restructure.

i'm sorry for my incapability.

[Dormilich]

Originally Posted by benniii

isn't there any way to do this "simply" or online or somewhat?

nope, there isn’t (excluding conversion by hand, which is the most simple, the longest taking (unless you only need to do that once) and most error prone method)

Originally Posted by benniii

some scheme you input as an algorythm or something, to then convert the old structure into the new one?

that’s commonly known as a programme (and yes, for the sake of this task I consider XSLT as a programming language).

Originally Posted by benniii

it's basically just this very one set of data in the above structure i need to restructure.

if it’s just that (i.e. a one-time action), you could do it manually.