Python xml.etree.ElementTree Problems

Question

NEVER MIND - I FOUND MY REAL ISSUE, IT WAS FURTHER ON IN MY CODE THAT I REALIZED.

I am having problems getting xml.etree.ElementTree to work like I expect it to.

xmlData = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?><suggestedmatches><destination><sortOrder>1</sortOrder><destinationType>destinationType1</destinationType></destination><destination><sortOrder>2</sortOrder><destinationType>destinationType2</destinationType></destination></suggestedmatches>"
root = ET.fromstring(xmlData)
logging.debug("DIAG: %s: root.tag = %s"
  % (FUNCTION_NAME, root.tag))
logging.debug("DIAG: %s: root = %r" % (FUNCTION_NAME, ET.tostring(root)))
destinations = root.findall("destination")
logging.debug('DIAG: %s: destinations = %r' % (FUNCTION_NAME, ET.tostring(destinations)))

I'm trying to figure out why I can't find destinations in root.

DEBUG:root:DIAG: findDestinations(): root.tag = suggestedmatches
DEBUG:root:DIAG: findDestinations(): root = b'<suggestedmatches><destination><sortOrder>1</sortOrder><destinationType>destinationType1</destinationType></destination><destination><sortOrder>2</sortOrder><destinationType>destinationType2</destinationType></destination></suggestedmatches>'
ERROR:root:findDestinations(): Encountered exception on root.findall() - 'list' object has no attribute 'iter'

And if I add the following code after I get root, I am seeing each of the destinations listed in the log:

for destination in root:
  destinationList.append(destination)
  logging.debug('DIAG: %s: destination.tag = %s'
    % (FUNCTION_NAME, destination.tag))

This same code is working in a different script, so I'm not sure why it's not working here.

What is ET here? Is it a built-in class? Or is it from some third-party package? — narendra-choudhary
– narendra-choudhary, Commented Nov 2, 2018 at 1:18

narendra-choudhary · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-02 01:42:46Z

1

You are getting None because ET.dump writes to sys.stdout and you are logging return of dump which is None.

From docs:

xml.etree.ElementTree.dump(elem)

Writes an element tree or element structure to sys.stdout. This function should be used for debugging only.

The exact output format is implementation dependent. In this version, it’s written as an ordinary XML file.

elem is an element tree or an individual element.

Try using tostring method instead of dump.

logging.debug("DIAG: %s: root = %r" % (FUNCTION_NAME, ET.tostring(root)))

answered Nov 2, 2018 at 1:42

narendra-choudhary

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1 Comment

Westy Over a year ago

Thanks, that explains the weirdness I was seeing in the output. Please see my updates to my question above, the problem is that I can't seem to extract out the data..

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