How to read root XML tag in python

Question

My question follows on from another stackoverflow question:- "How to get the root node of an xml file in Python?"

from xml.etree import ElementTree as ET
path = 'C:\cool.xml'
et = ET.parse ( path )
root = et.getroot()

When I extract and print the root tag, I receive:-

<Element 'root' at 0x1234abcd>

I then want to check that the root tag has a certain title, how do I pull out just the tag name?

If I try:

if root == "root":
    print 'something'

it doesn't work, so I assume I need to convert 'root' to text or something like that? I am very new to Python.

Michael Anderson · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-19 01:13:46Z

10

You should be able to use the tag function to get the name of the node.

from xml.etree import ElementTree as ET
path = 'C:\cool.xml'
et = ET.parse ( path )
root = et.getroot()

if root.tag == "root":
  print "I'm the root"

edited Sep 19, 2011 at 1:13

answered Sep 19, 2011 at 0:51

Michael Anderson

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1 Comment

user788462 Over a year ago

Thanks you very much, so simple :), just found it didn't need the () after tag. Thanks again.

John Machin · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-19 01:05:26Z

4

root is an instance of the Element class. Any such object will have a tag attribute. Just use root.tag. Given what you say in your question, this should produce the string "root".

answered Sep 19, 2011 at 1:05

John Machin

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