XML parsing to get list of values in Python

Question

i have a XML output like below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><soapenv:Body><ns1:getValuesResponse soapenv:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:ns1="http://soap.core.green.controlj.com"><getValuesReturn soapenc:arrayType="xsd:string[3]" xsi:type="soapenc:Array" xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"><getValuesReturn xsi:type="xsd:string">337.81998</getValuesReturn><getValuesReturn xsi:type="xsd:string">129.1</getValuesReturn><getValuesReturn xsi:type="xsd:string">1152.9691</getValuesReturn></getValuesReturn></ns1:getValuesResponse></soapenv:Body></soapenv:Envelope>

I want to get all the values regarding "getValuesReturn" attribute as a Python list. For this, i used a code like below:

import libxml2

DOC="""<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><soapenv:Body><ns1:getValuesResponse soapenv:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:ns1="http://soap.core.green.controlj.com"><getValuesReturn soapenc:arrayType="xsd:string[3]" xsi:type="soapenc:Array" xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"><getValuesReturn xsi:type="xsd:string">337.81998</getValuesReturn><getValuesReturn xsi:type="xsd:string">129.1</getValuesReturn><getValuesReturn xsi:type="xsd:string">1152.9691</getValuesReturn></getValuesReturn></ns1:getValuesResponse></soapenv:Body></soapenv:Envelope>"""

def getValues(cat):
    return [attr.content for attr in doc.xpathEval("/elements/parent[@name='%s']/child/@value" % (cat))]

# gelen xml dosyasini yazdir
doc = libxml2.parseDoc(DOC)

#getValuesReturn etiketinin degerlerini yazdir
print getValues("getValuesReturn")

It just returns me an empty list. But i should get a list such as ["337.81998","129.1","1152.9691"]. Could you please help me out with this ?

Thanks in advance.

falsetru · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-06 08:50:25Z

1

Where does the xpath expression come from? It doesn't match anything. (There's no elements, parent tag element)

Try following:

DOC = ...
doc = libxml2.parseDoc(DOC)
print [attr.content for attr in doc.xpathEval(".//getValuesReturn")]

prints

['337.81998129.11152.9691', '337.81998', '129.1', '1152.9691']

doc = libxml2.parseDoc(DOC)
print [attr.content for attr in doc.xpathEval('.//getValuesReturn/text()')]

prints

['337.81998', '129.1', '1152.9691']

edited Sep 6, 2013 at 8:50

answered Sep 6, 2013 at 8:30

falsetru

371k69 gold badges769 silver badges659 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Shansal Over a year ago

Thank you so much. i realised that function needed editing but i didnt know how to do that according to this xml. Why do we have such a value as the first item in the list? How can we omit it?

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

XML parsing to get list of values in Python

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related