XML parsing python

Question

<dict>
<key>1208</key>
        <dict>
            <key>Track ID</key><integer>1208</integer>
            <key>Name</key><string>Kings And Queens</string>
            <key>Artist</key><string>30 Seconds To Mars</string>
            <key>Album Artist</key><string>30 Seconds to Mars</string>
            <key>Composer</key><string>Jared Leto</string>
            <key>Album</key><string>This Is War</string>
            <key>Genre</key><string>Pop</string>
            <key>Kind</key><string>MPEG audio file</string>
            <key>Size</key><integer>10634388</integer>
            <key>Total Time</key><integer>347820</integer>
            <key>Track Number</key><integer>1</integer>
            <key>Year</key><integer>2009</integer>
            <key>Date Modified</key><date>2011-09-05T21:03:08Z</date>
            <key>Date Added</key><date>2011-08-18T03:57:19Z</date>
            <key>Bit Rate</key><integer>244</integer>
            <key>Sample Rate</key><integer>44100</integer>
            <key>Comments</key><string> 00000000 00000210 000006F0 0000000000EA0000 00000000 00A22291 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000</string>
            <key>Play Count</key><integer>1</integer>

        <key>Play Date</key><integer>3399116673</integer>
            <key>Play Date UTC</key><date>2011-09-17T09:34:33Z</date>
            <key>Persistent ID</key><string>BB3D5E86F5CAC255</string>
            <key>Track Type</key><string>File</string>
            <key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/D:/My%20Music/English%20songs/01-30_seconds_to_mars-kings_and_queens.mp3</string>
            <key>File Folder Count</key><integer>-1</integer>
            <key>Library Folder Count</key><integer>-1</integer>
        </dict>

...

..

I want to use xml.dom.minidom package to parse this file.

self.dom = xml.dom.minidom.parse(self.file)
self.name = self.dom.getElementsByTagName('dict')
print self.name[10].firstChild.data

This code does not seem to work. Basically what I want is to check the value of the second child of dict and then if it is the track I want get the location of the track.

Is there a way to get the dict node which satisfies my conditions?

Is that correct that you have two levels of nesting where 'dict' can appear? Then the "getElementsByTagName" won't work. — Johannes Charra
– Johannes Charra, Commented Sep 18, 2011 at 7:32
Yes there 2 levels of dict. but there is a plist element on top of <dict> can the plist element be used ? — nightf0x
– nightf0x, Commented Sep 18, 2011 at 7:42
If you have full control over the naming of the elements, I'd strongly recommend using less generic names than dict and key first. :) — Johannes Charra
– Johannes Charra, Commented Sep 18, 2011 at 7:57
@jellybean: I suspect he doesn't have control over the naming of the elements. This looks to me like a snippet of the iTunesMusicLibrary.xml file that iTunes generates. — Luke Woodward
– Luke Woodward, Commented Sep 18, 2011 at 8:05

unutbu · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-18 08:05:31Z

3

How about:

import xml.dom.minidom as minidom
dom = minidom.parse('test.xml')
data={}
for dct in dom.getElementsByTagName('dict'):
    keys=dct.getElementsByTagName('key')
    # key.nextSibling can be an integer or string or date element, or Text node
    # key.nextSibling.firstChild is a Text node or None
    vals=[key.nextSibling.firstChild for key in keys]
    # drill down to the text inside the keys and vals
    keys=[key.firstChild.data for key in keys]
    vals=[val.data if val else None for val in vals]
    data=dict(zip(keys,vals))
    if data['Track ID']=='1208':
        print(data['Location'])
        break

which yields

file://localhost/D:/My%20Music/English%20songs/01-30_seconds_to_mars-kings_and_queens.mp3

edited Sep 18, 2011 at 8:05

answered Sep 18, 2011 at 7:56

unutbu

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