How do i print an xml element in python?

import xml.dom.minidom

dom = xml.dom.minidom.parse[xml_fname] # or xml.dom.minidom.parseString[xml_string]
pretty_xml_as_string = dom.toprettyxml[]

answered Jul 30, 2009 at 14:12

Ben NolandBen Noland

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19

lxml is recent, updated, and includes a pretty print function

import lxml.etree as etree

x = etree.parse["filename"]
print etree.tostring[x, pretty_print=True]

Check out the lxml tutorial: //lxml.de/tutorial.html

Mad Physicist

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answered Apr 15, 2009 at 0:21

17291729

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10

Another solution is to borrow this indent function, for use with the ElementTree library that's built in to Python since 2.5. Here's what that would look like:

from xml.etree import ElementTree

def indent[elem, level=0]:
    i = "\n" + level*"  "
    j = "\n" + [level-1]*"  "
    if len[elem]:
        if not elem.text or not elem.text.strip[]:
            elem.text = i + "  "
        if not elem.tail or not elem.tail.strip[]:
            elem.tail = i
        for subelem in elem:
            indent[subelem, level+1]
        if not elem.tail or not elem.tail.strip[]:
            elem.tail = j
    else:
        if level and [not elem.tail or not elem.tail.strip[]]:
            elem.tail = j
    return elem        

root = ElementTree.parse['/tmp/xmlfile'].getroot[]
indent[root]
ElementTree.dump[root]

answered Jan 4, 2011 at 1:57

adeade

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7

You have a few options.

xml.etree.ElementTree.indent[]

Batteries included, simple to use, pretty output.

But requires Python 3.9+

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

element = ET.XML["text"]
ET.indent[element]
print[ET.tostring[element, encoding='unicode']]

BeautifulSoup.prettify[]

BeautifulSoup may be the simplest solution for Python < 3.9.

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

bs = BeautifulSoup[open[xml_file], 'xml']
pretty_xml = bs.prettify[]
print[pretty_xml]

Output:

 
  
   1
  
  
   Add Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 solution files
  
 

This is my goto answer. The default arguments work as is. But text contents are spread out on separate lines as if they were nested elements.

lxml.etree.parse[]

Prettier output but with arguments.

from lxml import etree

x = etree.parse[FILE_NAME]
pretty_xml = etree.tostring[x, pretty_print=True, encoding=str]

Produces:

  
    
      1
      Add Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 solution files
      We need Visual Studio 2005/2008 project files for Windows.
    
  

This works for me with no issues.

xml.dom.minidom.parse[]

No external dependencies but post-processing.

import xml.dom.minidom as md

dom = md.parse[FILE_NAME]     
# To parse string instead use: dom = md.parseString[xml_string]
pretty_xml = dom.toprettyxml[]
# remove the weird newline issue:
pretty_xml = os.linesep.join[[s for s in pretty_xml.splitlines[]
                              if s.strip[]]]

The output is the same as above, but it's more code.

answered Sep 14, 2016 at 4:54

ChaimGChaimG

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3

Here's my [hacky?] solution to get around the ugly text node problem.

uglyXml = doc.toprettyxml[indent='  ']

text_re = re.compile['>\n\s+[[^\s].*?]\n\s+\g