XML processing in Python

Question

So I'm trying to do roughly the following:

Take the following snippet of XML:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE labels SYSTEM "label.dtd">
<labels _FORMAT="E:BARCODE2.ZPL" _QUANTITY="1" _DEVICENAME="ZBR3666875" _JOBNAME="BARC101">
  <label>
    <variable name="x">A-0000000</variable>
  </label>
</labels>

Parse it and extract the variable x, iterate over some range I give for x, which is a seven-digit barcode, and then have it send the XML to the device for each unique barcode.

I've looked into xml.etree and xml.dom.minidom, but I have very little experience processing XML in Python. I'm not looking for a detailed solution, just a helpful reference on what tool is best for the job. My thanks.

Duplicate: stackoverflow.com/questions/337/xml-processing-in-python — iteratingself
– iteratingself, Commented Dec 6, 2010 at 20:53

Nicholas Riley · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-06 20:06:45Z

7

Unless you're dealing with truly gigantic XML files, ElementTree is generally the easiest thing to use. There's the built-in implementations in Python and also lxml.etree which is mostly API-compatible but faster and more flexible.

answered Dec 6, 2010 at 20:06

Nicholas Riley

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1 Comment

user395760 Over a year ago

lxml.etree is full of win. Very convenient API, XPath support and as fast as you get.

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