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Python pretty XML printer with lxml

Asked 2011-02-23T04:14:18.030
42

After reading from an existing file with 'ugly' XML and doing some modifications, pretty printing doesn't work. I've tried etree.write(FILE_NAME, pretty_print=True).

I have the following XML:

<testsuites tests="14" failures="0" disabled="0" errors="0" time="0.306" name="AllTests">
    <testsuite name="AIR" tests="14" failures="0" disabled="0" errors="0" time="0.306">
....

And I use it like this:

tree = etree.parse('original.xml')
root = tree.getroot()

...    
# modifications
...

with open(FILE_NAME, "w") as f:
    tree.write(f, pretty_print=True)
python lxml pretty-print
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2 Answers

20

Well, according to the API docs, there is no method "write" in the lxml etree module. You've got a couple of options in regards to getting a pretty printed xml string into a file. You can use the tostring method like so:

f = open('doc.xml', 'w')
f.write(etree.tostring(root, pretty_print=True))
f.close()

Or, if your input source is less than perfect and/or you want more knobs and buttons to configure your out put you could use one of the python wrappers for the tidy lib.

http://utidylib.berlios.de/

import tidy
f.write(tidy.parseString(your_xml_str, **{'output_xml':1, 'indent':1, 'input_xml':1}))

http://countergram.com/open-source/pytidylib

from tidylib import tidy_document
document, errors = tidy_document(your_xml_str, options={'output_xml':1, 'indent':1, 'input_xml':1})
f.write(document)
answered 2011-02-23T05:54:41.840
0

I am not sure why other answers did not mention this. If you want to obtain the root of the xml there is a method called getroot(). I hope I answered your question (though a little late).

tree = et.parse(xmlFile)
root = tree.getroot()
answered 2013-01-03T03:48:45.810

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