Loop through a complicated xml data to get specific values using python

Question

I want to get the value temperature which is in the <element type = 'air_temperature_maximum'> under <forecast-period>. I only want it for the area 'Melbourne'.

xml source = http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDV10753.xml

I tried the following, but this only prints out the entire parsed xml rather than what i intend to get.

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
import requests

url = "http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDV10753.xml"
response = requests.get(url, verify=False).content.decode('UTF-8')

tree = ET.parse(response)
print(tree.find('product').find('amoc').find('forecast').find('area')
.find('forecast-period').find('element').text)

I want all the 7 day temperature value which is in <element type = 'air_temperature_maximum'> for the area 'Melbourne'. Any help is much appreciated.

RoadRunner · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-02 04:47:25Z

2

You can iterate through the XML by brute force in multiple nested loops:

from xml.etree.ElementTree import fromstring, ElementTree
from requests import get

url = 'http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDV10753.xml'

req = get(url)
tree = ElementTree(fromstring(req.text))
root = tree.getroot()

for outer in root:
    if outer.tag == 'forecast':
        for inner in outer:
            if inner.attrib['description'] == 'Melbourne':
                for element in inner:
                    for temp in element:
                        if temp.attrib["type"] == 'air_temperature_maximum':
                            print(temp.text)

Which gives 7 temperatures:

You can also store the temperatures in a list using a list comprehension:

for outer in root:
    if outer.tag == "forecast":
        for inner in outer:
            if inner.attrib["description"] == "Melbourne":
                temps = [
                    temp.text
                    for element in inner
                    for temp in element
                    if temp.attrib["type"] == "air_temperature_maximum"
                ]
                print(temps)

List of temperatures:

['23', '28', '42', '24', '22', '24', '27']

I'll leave the end conversion of these temperatures to you.

edited Jan 2, 2019 at 4:47

answered Jan 2, 2019 at 4:33

RoadRunner

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2 Comments

Bharath Over a year ago

it's like you read my mind. I was thinking how to convert that into a list. You're a legend mate! Thank you.

RoadRunner Over a year ago

@Bharath No worries man. Your question was clear and understandable, and I immediately thought showing a list example would be beneficial to you. When good questions are asked, good answers always come :).

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