Return XPath attribute value with ElementTree

Question

I want to evaluate XML documents with this kind of structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Service_name version="3.3.0">
...

where Service_name tag name is not constant string, while version attribute is required.

For that purpose this xpath expression: /*[1]/@version evaluates fine with any xpath processor, but I can't figure how with Python ElementTree.

For example:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
doc = ET.parse('sample.xml')
v = find('/*[1]/@version').text

raises KeyError: '@'

I tried similar combinations but none that worked.

How can I get version number from above example document with ElementTree?

Steven · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-31 07:31:42Z

2

ElementTree uses its own path syntax, which is more or less a subset of xpath. If you want an ElementTree compatible library with full xpath support, try lxml.

answered Aug 31, 2012 at 7:31

Steven

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2 Comments

theta Over a year ago

Yes, I use lxml myself, but working on a part of code that should not require additional modules except SPL.

Steven Over a year ago

Then you'll have to select the element using the path syntax, and retrieve the attribute with the .get() method: doc.find('/*[1]').get('version') (theta's answer is easier if you know it is the root element)

theta · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-31 06:16:34Z

0

Although it's not XPath as question name, this seems like one way:

doc.getroot().get('version')

edited Aug 31, 2012 at 6:16

answered Aug 31, 2012 at 5:05

theta

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