how to make a tree with randomly selected html tags from an array in python?

Question

I am new to python. I have xml file as an input to my python script "html.xml". I made an array which contains html tags:

from xml.etree import ElementTree
tree = ElementTree.parse("html.xml")
olp = tree.findall("//tag_Name")
mylist = [t.text for t in olp]
print mylist

The output is:

[' !--...-- ', ' !DOCTYPE ', ' a ', ' abbr ', ' acronym ', ' address ', ' applet
 ', ' area ', ' article ', ' aside ', ' audio ', ' b ', ' base ', ' basefont ',
' bdi ', ' bdo ', ' big ', ' blockquote ', ' body ', ' br ', ' button ', ' canva
s ', ' caption ', ' center ', ' cite ', ' code ', ' col ', ' colgroup ', ' comma
nd ', ' datalist ', ' dd ', ' del ', ' details ', ' dfn ', ' dialog ', ' dir ',
' div ', ' dl ', ' dt ', ' em ', ' embed ', ' fieldset ', ' figcaption ', ' figu
re ', ' font ', ' footer ', ' form ', ' frame ', ' frameset ', ' h1 to h6 ', ' h
ead ', ' header ', ' hgroup ', ' hr ', ' html ', ' i ', ' iframe ', ' img ', ' i
nput ', ' ins ', ' kbd ', ' keygen ', ' label ', ' legend ', ' li ', ' link ', '
 map ', ' mark ', ' menu ', ' meta ', ' meter ', ' nav ', ' noframes ', ' noscri
pt ', ' object ', ' ol ', ' optgroup ', ' option ', ' output ', ' p ', ' param '
, ' pre ', ' progress ', ' q ', ' rp ', ' rt ', ' ruby ', ' s ', ' samp ', ' scr
ipt ', ' section ', ' select ', ' small ', ' source ', ' span ', ' strike ', ' s
trong ', ' style ', ' sub ', ' summary ', ' sup ', ' table ', ' tbody ', ' td ',
 ' textarea ', ' tfoot ', ' th ', ' thead ', ' time ', ' title ', ' tr ', ' trac
k ', ' tt ', ' u ', ' ul ', ' var ', ' video ', ' wbr ']

From the above array, I want to randomly select some tags and want to make a tree like: (As an example) Root node 'abbr' with child nodes 'a' and 'option'

'a' with child nodes 'video' and 'title'

'option' with child nodes 'output' and 'source' ......

Basically from the tree, I want to generate html page.

Can anyone tell me how I can do that? what should be the code in python? I am using python 2.7

could you more explain about what you want?

Dmitry Zagorulkin
– Dmitry Zagorulkin

2013-03-10 19:31:51 +00:00
Commented Mar 10, 2013 at 19:31 — Dmitry Zagorulkin
– Dmitry Zagorulkin, Commented Mar 10, 2013 at 19:31

Paul Etherton · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-10 19:34:59Z

2

Have a look at BeautifulSoup, it will probably do what you want. The documentation is excellent.

BeautifulSoup does XML too.

If you genuinely want pseudo-random selection of tags from that list (why?), then you need to do:

import random

a_random_tag = random.choice(list_of_tags)

edited Mar 10, 2013 at 19:34

answered Mar 10, 2013 at 18:59

Paul Etherton

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2 Comments

user2027571 Over a year ago

they dont have example for xml as an input. They take the html page as an input. Do you have any example related to that? Can you tell me the python code for random selection of tags from above array and generating tree out of that.

Paul Etherton Over a year ago

I've edited my answer to address some of your concerns. Have a read of the BeautifulSoup documentation properly, you'll learn a lot in the process and should then be able to do what you want.

Dmitry Zagorulkin · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-10 19:48:55Z

1

if you interested in making a tree in python from parsed data, you could use autovivification:

Autovivification is a distinguishing feature of the many programming languages involving the dynamic creation of data structures.

from collections import defaultdict

def tree():
    return defaultdict(tree)

lupin = tree()
lupin["express"][3] = "stand and deliver"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autovivification

edited Mar 10, 2013 at 19:48

answered Mar 10, 2013 at 19:38

Dmitry Zagorulkin

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2 Comments

user2027571 Over a year ago

how can I create a tree from the above array i-e "mylist"?

Dmitry Zagorulkin Over a year ago

Add in post your input xml

John Hawkins · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-11 19:27:15Z

0

To randomly select tags from mylist in python, you can do this loop

import random

while len(mylist) > 0:
    idx = random.randint(1,len(mylist))-1
    tag = mylist[idx]

    # this next line is critical or the loop will never exit
    del mylist[idx]  # this removes it from the list


   ... do whatever you want with tag (add to your tree, create a new node, etc)...

There are other ways too, but that should get you going and you can optimize it from there

edited Mar 11, 2013 at 19:27

answered Mar 10, 2013 at 19:26

John Hawkins

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6 Comments

Paul Etherton Over a year ago

There's no need to faff about with randint, just use choice.

John Hawkins Over a year ago

did you remember to import random? (edit: looks like the comment I was replying to was deleted)

John Hawkins Over a year ago

@PaulEtherton: yes, just trying to show the mechanics of it though.

user2027571 Over a year ago

yes actually i ran it again but its still running and not stopping.. I think it got stuck somewhere. I use your code after my code as: while len(mylist) > 0: idx = random.randint(1,len(mylist))-1 tag = mylist[idx] print tag

user2027571 Over a year ago

any idea y it is stuck in while loop

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