Python ElementTree parsing unbound prefix error

Question

I am learning ElementTree in python. Everything seems fine except when I try to parse the xml file with prefix:

test.xml:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<abc:data>
   <abc:country name="Liechtenstein" rank="1" year="2008">
   </abc:country>
   <abc:country name="Singapore" rank="4" year="2011">
   </abc:country>
   <abc:country name="Panama" rank="5" year="2011">
   </abc:country>
</abc:data>

When I try to parse the xml:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
tree = ET.parse('test.xml')

I got the following error:

xml.etree.ElementTree.ParseError: unbound prefix: line 2, column 0

Do I need to specify something in order to parse a xml file with prefix?

in short you have a missing namespace for abc. take a look at: stackoverflow.com/a/4999510/1107807 — Don Question
– Don Question, Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 4:26

Thiru · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-13 09:13:26Z

23

Add the abc namespace to your xml file.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<abc:data xmlns:abc="your namespace">

edited Feb 13, 2013 at 9:13

answered Feb 13, 2013 at 9:07

Thiru

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2 Comments

Mark Allen Over a year ago

But what about when it's not my XML to change, I just need to parse it?

dnh37 Over a year ago

I second the question/comment from @Mark Allen! I am having the same problem. Certainly on a case-by-case basis one could edit the file, but I have many large (and nonuniform) xml files. Surely there is a way to get around this

rahul yadav · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-08 16:25:51Z

1

I encountered the same issue while processing xml file. You can use below code before parse your XML file. This will resolve your issue.

parser1 = etree.XMLParser(encoding="utf-8", recover=True)
tree1 = ElementTree.parse('filename.xml', parser1)

answered Oct 8, 2022 at 16:25

rahul yadav

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1 Comment

mzjn Over a year ago

The recover option works with lxml, but not with the built-in ElementTree library.

polars · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-16 07:17:30Z

-1

See if this works:

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

xml_file = "test.xml"

with open(xml_file, "r", encoding="utf8") as f:
    contents = f.read()
    soup = BeautifulSoup(contents, "xml")

    items = soup.find_all("country")
    print (items)

The above will produce an array which you can then manipulate to achieve your aim (e.g. remove html tags etc.):

[<country name="Liechtenstein" rank="1" year="2008">
</country>, <country name="Singapore" rank="4" year="2011">
</country>, <country name="Panama" rank="5" year="2011">
</country>]

answered Aug 16, 2019 at 7:17

polars

1

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