SAX parser is not working properly when xml input is given as stream and some xml elements are empty

When xml input is given as input stream to SAX parser with some of the xml elements are empty, then the parser's character method is not called and gets different result.

For example,

XML input:

<root>
    <salutation>Hello Sir</salutation>
    <userName />
    <parent>
        <child>a</child>
    </parent>
    <parent>
        <child>b</child>
    </parent>
    <parent>
        <child>c</child>
    </parent>
    <success>yes</success>
    <hoursSpent />
</root>

Parser Implementation:

public class MyContentHandler implements ContentHandler {

private String salutation;
private String userName;
private String success;
private String hoursSpent;
String tmpValue="";

public void endElement(String uri, String localName, String qName) throws SAXException {
if ("salutation".equals(qName)) {
        userName=tmpValue;
      }
}else
if ("userName".equals(qName)) {
        userName=tmpValue;
      }
}else
if ("success".equals(qName)) {
        success=tmpValue;
      }
}else
if ("hoursSpent".equals(qName)) {
        hoursSpent=tmpValue;
      }
}


 public void characters(char[] ch, int begin, int length) throws SAXException {

    tmpValue = new String(ch, begin, length).trim();
}

Main Program:

public class MainProgram{

  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    SAXParserFactory saxParserFactory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
    SAXParser saxParser = saxParserFactory.newSAXParser();

    XMLReader xmlReader = saxParser.getXMLReader();

    MyContentHandler contentHandler = new MyContentHandler(xmlReader);
    xmlReader.setContentHandler(contentHandler);

    String input = "<root><salutation>Hello Sir</salutation><userName /><parent><child>a</child></parent><parent><child>b</child></parent><success>yes</success><hoursSpent /></root>";
    InputStream stream = new ByteArrayInputStream(input.getBytes());
    xmlReader.parse(new InputSource(stream));
    System.out.println(contentHandler.getUserName()); //prints Hello sir instead of null
System.out.println(contentHandler.getHoursSpent); //prints yes instead of null

if empty xml element is specified without open and close elements as below,

<userName />

instead of <userName></userName>, then the character() method in the handler class is not executed and wrong value is set. This issue occurs only when i use input xml as input stream. Please help me to solve this issue