Data from XML to Python list

Question

Is it possible to store data from an XML file to a list in python. For example I have an XML file with the following content:

<brochure>
<onlinePath>http://EEE</onlinePath>
<downloadPath>http://YYY</downloadPath>
<Name>ABC</Name>
<AAA>
    <P>JPG</P>
        <Q>JPG</Q>
</AAA>
</brochure>
<brochure>
<onlinePath>http://EKK</onlinePath>
<downloadPath>http://XXX</downloadPath>
<Name>DEF</Name>
<AAA>
    <P>JPG</P>
        <Q>JPG</Q>
</AAA>
</brochure>

Is it possible to store into a python list like:

onlinePath = ("http://EEE", "http://EKK")
Name = ("ABC", "DEF")

In short, to answer your question, yes it is possible. A suggestion though: Try and reformat your question as it is difficult to read. — Raz
– Raz, Commented Dec 24, 2010 at 10:36

Hugh Bothwell · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-24 14:59:22Z

9

import lxml

xml = """
<brochures>
    <brochure>
        <onlinePath>http://EEE</onlinePath>
        <downloadPath>http://YYY</downloadPath>
        <Name>ABC</Name>
        <AAA>
            <P>JPG</P>
            <Q>JPG</Q>
        </AAA>
    </brochure>
    <brochure>
        <onlinePath>http://EKK</onlinePath>
        <downloadPath>http://XXX</downloadPath>
        <Name>DEF</Name>
        <AAA>
            <P>JPG</P>
            <Q>JPG</Q>
        </AAA>
    </brochure>
</brochures>
"""

root = lxml.etree.fromstring(xml)
mylist = root.xpath('//brochure/onlinePath/text()')

results in

['http://EEE', 'http://EKK']

Notes:

I wrapped your xml in <brochures></brochures> to make it a tree instead of a forest (ie single root node);
If you want to read from a file instead of a string, use lxml.etree.parse() instead of lxml.etree.fromstring()

edited Dec 24, 2010 at 14:59

answered Dec 24, 2010 at 14:54

Hugh Bothwell

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2 Comments

Rakesh Over a year ago

Thanks Alot mate this saved me a hell lot of time

Hugh Bothwell Over a year ago

@Rakesh: Glad to help - so - flag it as a solution!

mzjn · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-25 19:28:47Z

4

Hugh's solution is fine. Here is a variation that uses ElementTree (tested with Python 2.6):

from xml.etree import ElementTree

tree = ElementTree.parse("yourfile.xml")   
olp = tree.findall("//onlinePath")
mylist = [t.text for t in olp]

answered Dec 25, 2010 at 19:28

mzjn

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Comments

Lennart Regebro · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-24 10:40:17Z

1

Yes, it is very possible. Two libraries to help you with this is ElementTree and lxml. Take a look at them.

answered Dec 24, 2010 at 10:40

Lennart Regebro

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1 Comment

Lennart Regebro Over a year ago

@kame Then install it.

dumb906 · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-24 10:42:05Z

0

i don't think it can store it in lists bt it can store it in dictionaries since they have key:values using expat for xml

but can check the entries here

answered Dec 24, 2010 at 10:42

dumb906

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Comments

pythonFoo · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-24 11:15:25Z

0

For short xml file like this, I suggest you minidom.

answered Dec 24, 2010 at 11:15

pythonFoo

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Comments

infrared · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-24 11:43:58Z

0

Check out BeautifulSoup

answered Dec 24, 2010 at 11:43

infrared

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2 Comments

Tomasz Elendt Over a year ago

"The BeautifulSoup class is full of web-browser-like heuristics for divining the intent of HTML authors. But XML doesn't have a fixed tag set, so those heuristics don't apply. So BeautifulSoup doesn't do XML very well." -- crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/…

infrared Over a year ago

@Tomasz Elendt: The BeautifulSoup module has a separate class - BeautifulStoneSoup - which should be used to parse XML.

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