Handling XML with Python

Question

All I want to do is get the content of an XML tag in Python. I'm maybe using the wrong import; ideally I'd love to have the way PHP deals with XML (i.e $XML->this_tag), like the way pyodbc does database stuff (i.e. table.field)

Here's my example:

from xml.dom.minidom import parseString
dom = parseString("<test>I want to read this</test>")
dom.getElementsByTagName("test")[0].toxml()
>>> u'<test>I want to read this</test>'

All I want to be able to do read the contents of the tag (like innerHTML in javascript).

maybe try dom.getElementsByTagName("test")[0].firstChild().toxml() — Oliver
– Oliver, Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 12:34
There is a useful summary of python xml support on the python wiki — MattH
– MattH, Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 12:49

thavan · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-12 12:47:28Z

2

instead of dom.getElementsByTagName("test")[0].toxml() put dom.getElementsByTagName("test")[0].firstChild.data It will print the node value.

answered Jan 12, 2012 at 12:47

thavan

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ThiefMaster · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-12 12:48:14Z

2

I like BeautifulSoup :

from BeautifulSoup import BeautifulStoneSoup
xml = """<test>I want to read this</test>"""
soup = BeautifulStoneSoup(xml)
soup.find('test')

I want to read this

looks somewhat better.

edited Jan 12, 2012 at 12:48

ThiefMaster

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answered Jan 12, 2012 at 12:40

WeaselFox

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1 Comment

joedborg Over a year ago

Like it! Will use that in a future project!

mdeous · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-12 12:52:27Z

1

Use firstChild.data instead of toxml:

from xml.dom.minidom import parseString

dom = parseString('<test>I want to read this</test>')
element = dom.getElementsByTagName('test')[0]
print element.firstChild.data

Output:

>>> I want to read this

answered Jan 12, 2012 at 12:52

mdeous

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