print tag value from xml using python

Question

I am trying to write a Python script that prints the value of a particular tag in an XML output. Here, the tag value I need to print is the value of in each and every occurrences in the XML output. I tried as below, but it shows an attribute error. What could be wrong here? Which is the correct way of getting and print values of certain more tags which I am interested to see? Any help please? Thanks.

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

mystring="""<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<main>
    <student>
        <male>
            <result>pass</result>
            <name>Paul</name>
            <address>boston</address>
            <localreference>
                <name>Charlie</name>
            </localreference>
        </male>
        <female>
            <result>pass</result>
            <name>Rose</name>
            <address>newyork</address>
            <localreference>
                <name>Charlie</name>
            </localreference>
        </female>
    </student>
    <student>
        <male>
            <result>fail</result>
            <name>Philippe</name>
            <address>boston</address>
            <localreference>
                <name>White</name>
            </localreference>
        </male>
    </student>
</main>"""

main = ET.fromstring(mystring)
for student in main:
  if (student.tag == "student"):
      print student.find("male/result").text
      print student.find("female/result").text

Error>

# python new5.py
pass
pass
fail
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "new5.py", line 39, in <module>
    print student.find("female/result").text
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'text'

dawg · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-14 18:13:16Z

0

ElementTree supports a subset of XPath, and that may be easier for your example:

root = ET.fromstring(mystring)
for gender in ('male', 'female'):
    print gender
    for student in root.findall('./student/%s' % gender): 
        print '\t{:20}: {}'.format(student.find('name').text, student.find('result').text)

Prints:

male
    Paul                : pass
    Philippe            : fail
female
    Rose                : pass

(btw: avoid using main as a variable name since you clobber the name of the main module)

If you want the results in document order rather than grouped by gender, you might do something like:

for students in root.findall('./student'):
    for gender in students:
        print ' '.join([gender.tag] + map(lambda a: gender.find(a).text, ('name', 'address', 'result', 'localreference/name')))

Prints

male Paul boston pass Charlie
female Rose newyork pass Charlie
male Philippe boston fail White

edited May 14, 2015 at 18:13

answered May 14, 2015 at 16:18

dawg

105k24 gold badges143 silver badges217 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

user3721640 Over a year ago

Thanks Dawg. However i get this error. # python new5.py male Traceback (most recent call last): File "new5.py", line 40, in <module> print '\t{:20}: {}'.format(student.find('name').text, student.find('result').text) ValueError: zero length field name in format

dawg Over a year ago

What version os Python? You probably have Python 2.6. Use '\t{0:20}: {1}' for the format string.

user3721640 Over a year ago

Awesome, that worked. I am using 2.6.6 . Sorry to ask, I am a beginner here, would you mind explaining the last print statement? print '\t{:20}: {}'.format(student.find('name').text, student.find('result').text) Thanks Dawg..

dawg Over a year ago

It is the Python format mini language

Kenneth E. Bellock · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-14 16:11:27Z

0

Your code for printing a tag value is correct, but you are asking for a section of your xml that does not exist. There is no female section in the second student section. This is why student.find("female/result") is returning None on the second student, and you cannot call .text on a None object.

answered May 14, 2015 at 16:11

Kenneth E. Bellock

1,0668 silver badges24 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

print tag value from xml using python

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related