simplest way to generate xml in python

Question

I have a defaultdict(list).. So, data structure of following format:

1:[1,2,3,4,5]
2:[2,3,4]

I want to generate the following xml

<html>
<page>
<src>1</src>
<links>
   <link>1</link>
   <link>2</link>
    ...
    <link>5</link>
</links>
</page>

<page>
<src>2</src>
<links>
   <link>2</link>
   <link>3</link>
    <link>4</link>
</links>
</page>
<html>

And then write an indented xml to file

Check out this answer: http://stackoverflow.com/a/4470210/25097. lxml.builder.E is super-easy to use for this kind of thing. — Christian Aichinger
– Christian Aichinger, Commented Apr 7, 2014 at 19:15
Speaking as someone who does not know how to use the xml libraries of python, your question seems straightforward to implement with two nested for loops, if you are reasonable sure your scope won't grow for this functionality. — Emilio M Bumachar
– Emilio M Bumachar, Commented Apr 7, 2014 at 19:18

alecxe · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-07 19:16:14Z

1

You can use BeautifulSoup:

from bs4 import Tag


d = {1: [1,2,3,4,5], 2: [2,3,4]}

root = Tag(name='html')
for key, values in d.iteritems():
    page = Tag(name='page')
    src = Tag(name='src')
    src.string = str(key)
    page.append(src)

    links = Tag(name='links')
    for value in values:
        link = Tag(name='link')
        link.string = str(value)
        links.append(link)

    page.append(links)
    root.append(page)

print root.prettify()

prints:

<html>
 <page>
  <src>
   1
  </src>
  <links>
   <link>
    1
   </link>
   <link>
    2
   </link>
   <link>
    3
   </link>
   <link>
    4
   </link>
   <link>
    5
   </link>
  </links>
 </page>
 <page>
  <src>
   2
  </src>
  <links>
   <link>
    2
   </link>
   <link>
    3
   </link>
   <link>
    4
   </link>
  </links>
 </page>
</html>

answered Apr 7, 2014 at 19:16

alecxe

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2 Comments

frazman Over a year ago

Anyway, we can indent the format properly like <src>1</src> in same line??

alecxe Over a year ago

@Fraz it's just a beautifulsoup prettifier, you can customize the output.

alecxe · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-07 19:25:11Z

You can also define a jinja2 template and render it:

from jinja2 import Template


data = {1:[1,2,3,4,5], 2:[2,3,4]}

html = """<html>
    {% for key, values in data.iteritems() %}
        <page>
        <src>{{ key }}</src>
        <links>
            {% for value in values %}
               <link>{{ value }}</link>
            {% endfor %}
        </links>
        </page>
    {% endfor %}
<html>"""

template = Template(html)
print template.render(data=data)

prints:

<html>
        <page>
        <src>1</src>
        <links>
               <link>1</link>
               <link>2</link>
               <link>3</link>
               <link>4</link>
               <link>5</link>
        </links>
        </page>

        <page>
        <src>2</src>
        <links>
               <link>2</link>
               <link>3</link>
               <link>4</link>
        </links>
        </page>
<html>

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