Parse XML nodes as a list using Python

Question

I'm parsing an XML file using DOM in Python. Some of my XML nodes contain a list.

An example looks like this:

<items>
 <item>
    <name>name001</name>
    <rows>10</rows>
    <columns>14</columns>
    <information>
       <i1>[[3, 2]]</i1>
       <i2>[[6, 13]]</i2>
       <i3>[[3, 5]]</i3>
       <i4>[[6, 10], [8, 6]]</i4>
       <i5>[[6, 12]]</i5>
    </information>
 </item>
 <item>
    <name>name072</name>
    <rows>10</rows>
    <columns>13</columns>
    <information>
       <i1>[[3, 5]]</i1>
       <i2>[[8, 2]]</i2>
       <i3>[[6, 6], [8, 11]]</i3>
       <i4>[[4, 7]]</i4>
       <i5>[]</i5>
    </information>
 </item>
</items>

Right now I'm parsing the XML file like this:

dom = parse('file.xml')
el = dom.documentElement
allInformation = el.getElementsByTagName('information')
for information in allInformation:
   for specific in information.childNodes:
      if specific.nodeType == specific.ELEMENT_NODE:
         if specific.nodeName == "i1":
           self.i1 = specific.firstChild.nodeValue

Note: i1 is a variable in my file: self.i1 = [] The output right now for self.i1 is: [[3, 5]]

Now, I'm trying to select i1[0][0], which gives '[' as a result. My i1 is interpreted as a String but I'm trying to interpret it as a list. How could I fix this?

Last but not least, I'm also still searching a way to parse for example only "name072". Now I always parse my entire list and I'm only using the last one.

Edit: I tried to make this clearer. If you still have any suggestions/questions, please tell me.

Cory Kramer · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-29 15:42:42Z

1

You can use ast.literal_eval

from ast import literal_eval

Then

self.i1 = literal_eval(specific.firstChild.nodeValue)

answered Nov 29, 2014 at 15:42

Cory Kramer

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1 Comment

Thiebout Over a year ago

Great! Works perfectly. Would you probably also know how to import only the 2nd one (as mentioned in "last but not least")?

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