Develop Reference

How to indent my xml data which in xml file python [duplicate]

After reading from an existing file with 'ugly' XML and doing some modifications, pretty printing doesn't work. I've tried etree.write(FILE_NAME, pretty_print=True).
I have the following XML:
<testsuites tests="14" failures="0" disabled="0" errors="0" time="0.306" name="AllTests">
<testsuite name="AIR" tests="14" failures="0" disabled="0" errors="0" time="0.306">
....
And I use it like this:
tree = etree.parse('original.xml')
root = tree.getroot()
...
# modifications
...
with open(FILE_NAME, "w") as f:
tree.write(f, pretty_print=True)

For me, this issue was not solved until I noticed this little tidbit here:
http://lxml.de/FAQ.html#why-doesn-t-the-pretty-print-option-reformat-my-xml-output
Short version:
Read in the file with this command:
>>> parser = etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text=True)
>>> tree = etree.parse(filename, parser)
That will "reset" the already existing indentation, allowing the output to generate it's own indentation correctly. Then pretty_print as normal:
>>> tree.write(<output_file_name>, pretty_print=True)

Well, according to the API docs, there is no method "write" in the lxml etree module. You've got a couple of options in regards to getting a pretty printed xml string into a file. You can use the tostring method like so:
f = open('doc.xml', 'w')
f.write(etree.tostring(root, pretty_print=True))
f.close()
Or, if your input source is less than perfect and/or you want more knobs and buttons to configure your out put you could use one of the python wrappers for the tidy lib.
http://utidylib.berlios.de/
import tidy
f.write(tidy.parseString(your_xml_str, **{'output_xml':1, 'indent':1, 'input_xml':1}))
http://countergram.com/open-source/pytidylib
from tidylib import tidy_document
document, errors = tidy_document(your_xml_str, options={'output_xml':1, 'indent':1, 'input_xml':1})
f.write(document)

fp = file('out.txt', 'w')
print(e.tree.tostring(...), file=fp)
fp.close()

Here is an answer that is fixed to work with Python 3:
from lxml import etree
from sys import stdout
from io import BytesIO
parser = etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text = True)
file_obj = BytesIO(text)
tree = etree.parse(file_obj, parser)
tree.write(stdout.buffer, pretty_print = True)
where text is the xml code as a sequence of bytes.

I am not sure why other answers did not mention this. If you want to obtain the root of the xml there is a method called getroot(). I hope I answered your question (though a little late).
tree = et.parse(xmlFile)
root = tree.getroot()

Of course - pretty print of lxml.etree is possible.
In my case, the old trick with remove_blank_text=True and pretty_print=True was not working as I expected (was too delicate), so I decided to write it by myself.
Here is it - a modern, forcible, native pythonic way to correct lxml.etee.Element tree indentation.
This gives a nicely prettified XML string:
from typing import Optional
import lxml.etree
def indent_lxml(element: lxml.etree.Element, level: int = 0, is_last_child: bool = True) -> None:
space = " "
indent_str = "\n" + level * space
element.text = strip_or_null(element.text)
if element.text:
element.text = f"{indent_str}{space}{element.text}"
num_children = len(element)
if num_children:
element.text = f"{element.text or ''}{indent_str}{space}"
for index, child in enumerate(element.iterchildren()):
is_last = index == num_children - 1
indent_lxml(child, level + 1, is_last)
elif element.text:
element.text += indent_str
tail_level = max(0, level - 1) if is_last_child else level
tail_indent = "\n" + tail_level * space
tail = strip_or_null(element.tail)
element.tail = f"{indent_str}{tail}{tail_indent}" if tail else tail_indent
def strip_or_null(text: Optional[str]) -> Optional[str]:
if text is not None:
return text.strip() or None
It's decent fast, because it doesn't allocate any additional structures in memory and also traversing the tree - it visits each node only once, giving the best possible - O x N computational complexity.
It rearranges all the existing indentation "in place" in the tree (the DOM) by correcting contents of Element.text and Element.tail attributes (affects white-spaces only).
Naturally, it also can be used with HTML parsed by lxml.
In order to use it, do something like that:
root = lxml.etree.parse("path/to/the_file.xml").getroot()
# or
root = lxml.etree.fromstring("<xml><body><leaf1/><leaf2/></body></xml>")
indent_lxml(root) # corrects indentation "in place"
result = lxml.etree.tostring(root, encoding="unicode")
print(result)
Which prints:
<xml>
<body>
<leaf1/>
<leaf2/>
</body>
</xml>

How to properly format xml file using lxml? [duplicate]

After reading from an existing file with 'ugly' XML and doing some modifications, pretty printing doesn't work. I've tried etree.write(FILE_NAME, pretty_print=True).
I have the following XML:
<testsuites tests="14" failures="0" disabled="0" errors="0" time="0.306" name="AllTests">
<testsuite name="AIR" tests="14" failures="0" disabled="0" errors="0" time="0.306">
....
And I use it like this:
tree = etree.parse('original.xml')
root = tree.getroot()
...
# modifications
...
with open(FILE_NAME, "w") as f:
tree.write(f, pretty_print=True)

For me, this issue was not solved until I noticed this little tidbit here:
http://lxml.de/FAQ.html#why-doesn-t-the-pretty-print-option-reformat-my-xml-output
Short version:
Read in the file with this command:
>>> parser = etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text=True)
>>> tree = etree.parse(filename, parser)
That will "reset" the already existing indentation, allowing the output to generate it's own indentation correctly. Then pretty_print as normal:
>>> tree.write(<output_file_name>, pretty_print=True)

Well, according to the API docs, there is no method "write" in the lxml etree module. You've got a couple of options in regards to getting a pretty printed xml string into a file. You can use the tostring method like so:
f = open('doc.xml', 'w')
f.write(etree.tostring(root, pretty_print=True))
f.close()
Or, if your input source is less than perfect and/or you want more knobs and buttons to configure your out put you could use one of the python wrappers for the tidy lib.
http://utidylib.berlios.de/
import tidy
f.write(tidy.parseString(your_xml_str, **{'output_xml':1, 'indent':1, 'input_xml':1}))
http://countergram.com/open-source/pytidylib
from tidylib import tidy_document
document, errors = tidy_document(your_xml_str, options={'output_xml':1, 'indent':1, 'input_xml':1})
f.write(document)

fp = file('out.txt', 'w')
print(e.tree.tostring(...), file=fp)
fp.close()

Here is an answer that is fixed to work with Python 3:
from lxml import etree
from sys import stdout
from io import BytesIO
parser = etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text = True)
file_obj = BytesIO(text)
tree = etree.parse(file_obj, parser)
tree.write(stdout.buffer, pretty_print = True)
where text is the xml code as a sequence of bytes.

I am not sure why other answers did not mention this. If you want to obtain the root of the xml there is a method called getroot(). I hope I answered your question (though a little late).
tree = et.parse(xmlFile)
root = tree.getroot()

Of course - pretty print of lxml.etree is possible.
In my case, the old trick with remove_blank_text=True and pretty_print=True was not working as I expected (was too delicate), so I decided to write it by myself.
Here is it - a modern, forcible, native pythonic way to correct lxml.etee.Element tree indentation.
This gives a nicely prettified XML string:
from typing import Optional
import lxml.etree
def indent_lxml(element: lxml.etree.Element, level: int = 0, is_last_child: bool = True) -> None:
space = " "
indent_str = "\n" + level * space
element.text = strip_or_null(element.text)
if element.text:
element.text = f"{indent_str}{space}{element.text}"
num_children = len(element)
if num_children:
element.text = f"{element.text or ''}{indent_str}{space}"
for index, child in enumerate(element.iterchildren()):
is_last = index == num_children - 1
indent_lxml(child, level + 1, is_last)
elif element.text:
element.text += indent_str
tail_level = max(0, level - 1) if is_last_child else level
tail_indent = "\n" + tail_level * space
tail = strip_or_null(element.tail)
element.tail = f"{indent_str}{tail}{tail_indent}" if tail else tail_indent
def strip_or_null(text: Optional[str]) -> Optional[str]:
if text is not None:
return text.strip() or None
It's decent fast, because it doesn't allocate any additional structures in memory and also traversing the tree - it visits each node only once, giving the best possible - O x N computational complexity.
It rearranges all the existing indentation "in place" in the tree (the DOM) by correcting contents of Element.text and Element.tail attributes (affects white-spaces only).
Naturally, it also can be used with HTML parsed by lxml.
In order to use it, do something like that:
root = lxml.etree.parse("path/to/the_file.xml").getroot()
# or
root = lxml.etree.fromstring("<xml><body><leaf1/><leaf2/></body></xml>")
indent_lxml(root) # corrects indentation "in place"
result = lxml.etree.tostring(root, encoding="unicode")
print(result)
Which prints:
<xml>
<body>
<leaf1/>
<leaf2/>
</body>
</xml>

How to add a subelement in xml

<data>
<items>
<item name="item1">....text here</item>
<item name="item2">....another text here</item>
</items>
</data>
I'm in stuck.
I have this scheme of xml. I need to add an additional block with (key,value) like this (name="something") and the text value.
So, I need to make something like this
<item name="item3">text here</item>
I know, that I can do something like this:
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
data = ET.Element('data')
items = ET.SubElement(data, 'items')
item1 = ET.SubElement(items, 'item')
item2 = ET.SubElement(items, 'item')
item1.set('name','item1')
item2.set('name','item2')
item1.text = 'another text here...'
item2.text = '...text here'
myExample = ET.SubElement(items, 'item')
myExample.set('name', 'For example')
myExample.text = 'for instance, its a string'
mydata = ET.tostring(data)
myfile = open("items2.xml", "wb")
myfile.write(mydata)
But I need to find another approach in order to do this.
And what is more, I want to figure it out how to add it to my xml file. Am I need to rewrite file or?...
myfile = open("items2.xml", "a+b")
myfile.write(mydata)
adds result into another string.. And it's causes error in xml.
I came up with a way that a bit solves my problem.
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
data = ET.Element('data')
items = ET.SubElement(data, 'items')
result = iter(['Price: 2250','Price: 1','Price: 2','Price: 3'])
l = [exec("f = ET.SubElement(items, 'item')\nf.set('name', 'order')\nf.text='%s'%next(result)") for _ in range(4)]
mydata = ET.tostring(data)
myfile = open("items2.xml", "wb")
myfile.write(mydata)

I've never seen the a+b mode. You want to create a new file with the changes added, which means w or wb in your case. You don't want to append since that just adds new data to the end of your previous file.
Also, why do you need to find another approach?

Parsing XML using ElementTree Python

Parsing an XML file with ElementTree in Python.
Here is the file:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<Device fqdm="DESKTOP-4OB3072">
<IP>192.168.203.1</IP>
<MAC>00:00:00:00:00:00</MAC>
</Device>
I am receiving the error (below) when trying to parse the file and retrieve the value of the attribute of 'fqdm'.
"xml.etree.ElementTree.ParseError: junk after document element: line 2, column 90"
Here is the parsing code (please ignore the stupid file handling, it will be changed):
with open('received_file.xml', 'a+') as f:
while True:
data = conn.recv(BUFFER_SIZE)
print data
if not data:
f.close()
break
f.write(data)
f.close()
g = open('received_file.xml', 'r+')
tree = ET.parse(g)
root = tree.getroot()
print root
test = root.find('./Device').attrib['fqdm']
print test
sock.close()

Try this:
with open('received_file.xml', 'a+') as f:
while True:
data = conn.recv(BUFFER_SIZE)
print data
if not data:
f.close()
break
f.write(data)
f.close()
g = open('received_file.xml', 'r+')
tree = ET.parse(g)
root = tree.getroot()
attributes = root.attrib
print root
test = attributes['fqdm']
print test
sock.close()

Your parse error is at column 90, but the xml snippet you shared only has 32 columns. If this file is generated by your socket object, you probably have extra unprintable characters following the valid xml in line 2. The code that creates this file probably needs to be updated to properly terminate the strings in the lines it receives.

yourTag.attrib.get("the_attribute")

Problems with parsing xml

I have some code that is parsing an xml file and saving it as a csv. I can do this two ways, one by manually downloading the xml file and then parsing it, the other by taking the xml feed directly using ET.fromstring and then parsing. When I go directly I get data errors it appears to be an integrity issue. I am trying to include the xml download in to the code, but I am not quite sure the best way to approach this.
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
import csv
import urllib
url = 'http://www.capitalbikeshare.com/data/stations/bikeStations.xml'
connection = urllib.urlopen(url)
data = connection.read()
#I need code here!!!
tree = ET.parse('bikeStations.xml')
root = tree.getroot()
#for child in root:
#print child.tag, child.attrib
locations = []
for station in root.findall('station'):
name = station.find('name').text
bikes = station.find('nbBikes').text
docks = station.find('nbEmptyDocks').text
time = station.find('latestUpdateTime').text
sublist = [name, bikes, docks, time]
locations.append(sublist)
#print 'Station:', name, 'has', bikes, 'bikes and' ,docks, 'docks'
#print locations
s = open('statuslog.csv', 'wb')
w = csv.writer(s)
w.writerows(locations)
s.close()
f = open('filelog.csv', 'ab')
w = csv.writer(f)
w.writerows(locations)
f.close()

What you need is:
root = ET.fromstring(data)
and omit the line of: tree = ET.parse('bikeStations.xml')
As the response from connection.read() returns String, you can directly read the XML string by using fromstring method, you can read more from HERE.