Use Groovy to Sort XML File - sorting

Question

Is there a way I can sort an xml file base on certain attributes with Groovy?
Here's my xml
<List>
<Person name="fff"/>
<Person name="ggg">
<PhoneNum>
<AreaCode>555</AreaCode>
<Number>1234567</Number>
</PhoneNum>
</Person>
<Person name="eee"/>
<Person name="ccc"/>
<Person name="jjj"/>
<Person name="ddd">
<PhoneNum>
<AreaCode>555</AreaCode>
<Number>7654321</Number>
</PhoneNum>
</Person>
<Person name="aaa"/>
<Person name="bbb"/>
<Person name="ttt"/>
</List>
and I want the output to be
<List>
<Person name="aaa"/>
<Person name="bbb"/>
<Person name="ccc"/>
<Person name="ddd">
<PhoneNum>
<AreaCode>555</AreaCode>
<Number>7654321</Number>
</PhoneNum>
</Person>
<Person name="eee"/>
<Person name="fff"/>
<Person name="ggg">
<PhoneNum>
<AreaCode>555</AreaCode>
<Number>1234567</Number>
</PhoneNum>
</Person>
<Person name="jjj"/>
<Person name="ttt"/>
</List>
I've looked into XMLSlurper but I can't quite seem to figure out how to do this.

Answer 1

Here's a modification to #dmahapatro's answer that preserves the nested node structure.
import groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder
String xml = '''
<List>
<Person name="fff"/>
<Person name="ggg">
<PhoneNum>
<AreaCode>555</AreaCode>
<Number>1234567</Number>
</PhoneNum>
</Person>
<Person name="eee"/>
<Person name="ccc"/>
<Person name="jjj"/>
<Person name="ddd">
<PhoneNum>
<AreaCode>555</AreaCode>
<Number>7654321</Number>
</PhoneNum>
</Person>
<Person name="aaa"/>
<Person name="bbb"/>
<Person name="ttt"/>
</List>
'''
def rootNode = new XmlParser().parseText(xml)
rootNode.children().sort(true) {it.attribute('name')}
new XmlNodePrinter().print(rootNode)
Here's what's going on:
Using XmlParser instead of XmlSlurper generates nodes that can be printed using XmlNodePrinter.
The children of the node are sorted by name using sort {it.attribute('name')}
The true attribute to sort mutates the underlying list, which reorders the child nodes.
The XmlNodePrinter prints the re-sorted xml document to standard out.

Answer 2

I think there can be a groovier way than this. But this should work on a Friday. :-)
import groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder
def xml = '''<List>
<Person name="fff"/>
<Person name="eee"/>
<Person name="ccc"/>
<Person name="jjj"/>
<Person name="aaa"/>
<Person name="bbb"/>
<Person name="ttt"/>
</List>'''
def rootNode = new XmlSlurper().parseText(xml)
def writer = new StringWriter()
def mkp = new MarkupBuilder(writer)
mkp.List{
rootNode.Person.#name.list()*.toString().sort().each{
Person(name: it)
}
}
println writer