How to create two XML files from one XML files in python

Question

I have this XML file

<Source>
    <segment1>
        <userRefNumber>test1</userRefNumber>
        <subscriber>
            <industryCode>ZZZZZ</industryCode>
            <memberCode>12345</memberCode>
            <inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>0622</inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>
        </subscriber>
        <options>
            <country>us</country>
            <language>en</language>
        </options>
        <tracking>
            <transactionTimeStamp>2021-02-25T04:09:30.508-06:00</transactionTimeStamp>
        </tracking>
    </segment1>
    <example2>
        <subscriber>
            <industryCode>ZAAAA</industryCode>
            <memberCode>999999</memberCode>
            <inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>0622</inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>
        </subscriber>
        <options>
            <country>us</country>
            <language>en</language>
        </options>
        <tracking>
            <transactionTimeStamp>2020-02-25T04:09:30.508-06:00</transactionTimeStamp>
        </tracking>
    </example2>
</Source>

I'd like to create, through Python, two XML files, that is one for each child:

one xml file for segment1
one xml file for segment2

xml1 should look like this:

<Source>
    <segment1>
        <userRefNumber>test1</userRefNumber>
        <subscriber>
            <industryCode>ZZZZZ</industryCode>
            <memberCode>12345</memberCode>
            <inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>0622</inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>
        </subscriber>
        <options>
            <country>us</country>
            <language>en</language>
        </options>
        <tracking>
            <transactionTimeStamp>2021-02-25T04:09:30.508-06:00</transactionTimeStamp>
        </tracking>
    </segment1>
</Source>

and xml2 should look like this:

<Source>
    <example2>
        <subscriber>
            <industryCode>ZAAAA</industryCode>
            <memberCode>999999</memberCode>
            <inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>0622</inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>
        </subscriber>
        <options>
            <country>us</country>
            <language>en</language>
        </options>
        <tracking>
            <transactionTimeStamp>2020-02-25T04:09:30.508-06:00</transactionTimeStamp>
        </tracking>
    </example2>
</Source>

The splitting criteria is this: to create one separate xml file for each element. In the example above there are two elements (segment1 and example2): therefore i'd like to create two xml files for each one of those.

I have checked this answer Split one large .xml file in more .xml files (python) but in that example the children have the same name so I guess the findall function doesn't apply to my case, as the children have different names (segment1 and segment2). Is it possible to create a single xml file based on the order of the elements from the root?

How should xm1 & xml2 look like - please update the post with the requested output. — balderman
– balderman, Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 9:05
Are you aware that in xml1 you have document & version and in xml2 not? — balderman
– balderman, Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 9:12

balderman · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-30 09:41:52Z

1

The below seems to work. The main point here is to loop over the elements and chack which one of them start with segment

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

xml = '''<Source>
    <document>response</document>
    <version>2.0</version>
    <segment1>
        <userRefNumber>test1</userRefNumber>
        <subscriber>
            <industryCode>ZZZZZ</industryCode>
            <memberCode>12345</memberCode>
            <inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>0622</inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>
        </subscriber>
        <options>
            <country>us</country>
            <language>en</language>
        </options>
        <tracking>
            <transactionTimeStamp>2021-02-25T04:09:30.508-06:00</transactionTimeStamp>
        </tracking>
    </segment1>
    <segment2>
        <userRefNumber>test2</userRefNumber>
        <subscriber>
            <industryCode>ZAAAA</industryCode>
            <memberCode>999999</memberCode>
            <inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>0622</inquirySubscriberPrefixCode>
        </subscriber>
        <options>
            <country>us</country>
            <language>en</language>
        </options>
        <tracking>
            <transactionTimeStamp>2020-02-25T04:09:30.508-06:00</transactionTimeStamp>
        </tracking>
    </segment2>
</Source>'''

root = ET.fromstring(xml)
counter = 1
for child in list(root):
    if child.tag.startswith('segment'):
        src = ET.Element('Source')
        src.append(child)
        with open(f'out_{counter}.xml','w') as f:
            tree = ET.ElementTree(src)
            tree.write(f,encoding="unicode")
        counter += 1

edited Sep 30, 2021 at 9:41

answered Sep 30, 2021 at 9:36

balderman

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5 Comments

Giampaolo Levorato Over a year ago

Thanks. Is there another option instead of startswith? for example: is there something like "contains"? In my file there will not always be "segment"

balderman Over a year ago

Come with a concrete example please. In general you can use : 'segment' in child.tag

Giampaolo Levorato Over a year ago

I have update the post with an example

balderman Over a year ago

Are you aware to 1) You have posted a new example as answer 2) You have changed the basic conditions of your original answer.

Giampaolo Levorato Over a year ago

Sorry about that. I have updated the question in the original post.

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