Filter xml data in Python

Question

Please help, Python beginner,

after getting all the data from xml, data_list = xmlTree.findall('.//data') e.g here I get 10 rows Now, I need to keep only a few rows for which attribute 'name' values match with elements of another list (inputID) with three IDs inside. e.g. remains only 3 rows whose name attribute match with the list elements

Thank you.

+1 for the "Please help, Python beginner"

jterrace
– jterrace

2012-08-08 14:45:58 +00:00
Commented Aug 8, 2012 at 14:45 — jterrace
– jterrace, Commented Aug 8, 2012 at 14:45

ryucl0ud · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-08 16:06:11Z

1

You can use a for loop to iterate over each element, then decide if each element should be removed. I used the Python doc ElementTree XML API for reference.

from xml.etree.ElementTree import ElementTree

tree = ElementTree()

# Test input
tree.parse("sample.xml")

# List containing names you want to keep
inputID = ['name1', 'name2', 'name3']

for node in tree.findall('.//data'):
    # Remove node if the name attribute value is not in inputID
    if not node.attrib.get('name') in inputID:
        tree.getroot().remove(node)

# Do what you want with the modified xml
tree.write('sample_out.xml')

answered Aug 8, 2012 at 16:06

ryucl0ud

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3 Comments

Indigo Over a year ago

thank you so much...It is exactly what I wanted to do... I already have the module imported but since it's all new to me, do not even know the basics of Python....somehow got new books and tuts to work on since yesterday....funny....thanks again...:-)

ryucl0ud Over a year ago

Not a problem--glad I could help. I would appreciate if you would accept my answer, though. Thanks.

Indigo Over a year ago

yes, this is the answer that I actually used with changes according to my need..thanks again..

user2665694 · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-08 14:36:54Z

0

You can remove a node from the tree using

current_node.getparent().remove(current_node)

answered Aug 8, 2012 at 14:36

user2665694

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