Detecting and replacing xml from string in python

Question

I have a file that contains text as well as some xml content dumped into it. It looks something like this :

The authentication details : <id>70016683</id><password>password@123</password>
The next step is to send the request.
The request : <request><id>90016133</id><password>password@3212</password></request>
Additional info includes <Address><line1>House no. 341</line1><line2>A B Street</line2><City>Sample city</City></Address>

I am using a python program to parse this file. I would like to replace the xml part with a place holder : xml_obj. The output should look something like this :

The authentication details : xml_obj
The next step is to send the request.
The request : xml_obj
Additional info includes xml_obj

At the same time I would also like to extract the replaced xml text and store it in a list. The list should contain None if the line doesn't have an xml object.

I have tried using regex for this purpose :

       xml_tag = re.search(r"<\w*>",line)
       if xml_tag:
            start_position = xml_tag.start()
            xml_word = xml_tag.group()[:1]+'/'+xml_tag.group()[1:]
            xml_pattern = r'{}'.format(xml_word)
            stop_position = re.search(xml_pattern,line).stop()

But this code retrieves the start and stop positions for only one xml tag and it's content for the first line and the entire format for the last line ( in the input file ). I would like to get all xml content irrespective of the xml structure and also replace it with 'xml_obj'.

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Edit :

I also want to apply the same logic to files that look like this :

The authentication details : ID <id>70016683</id> Password <password>password@123</password> Authentication details complete
The next step is to send the request.
The request : <request><id>90016133</id><password>password@3212</password></request> Request successful
Additional info includes <Address><line1>House no. 341</line1><line2>A B Street</line2><City>Sample city</City></Address>

The above files may have more than one xml object in a line.

They may also have some plain text after the xml part.

Then please edit your question and add a few more representative samples of what the text looks like. — Jack Fleeting
– Jack Fleeting, Commented Nov 25, 2020 at 11:35

Jack Fleeting · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-25 12:06:12Z

1

The following is a a little convoluted, but assuming that your actual text is correctly represented by the sample in your question, try this:

txt = """[your sample text above]"""
lines = txt.splitlines()
entries = []
new_txt = ''

for line in lines:
    entry = (line.replace(' <',' xxx<',1).split('xxx'))
    if len(entry)==2:
        entries.append(entry[1])
        entry[1]="xml_obj"
        line=''.join(entry)
    else:
        entries.append('none')
    new_txt+=line+'\n'
for entry in entries:
    print(entry)
print('---')
print(new_txt)

Output:

<id>70016683</id><password>password@123</password>
none
<request><id>90016133</id><password>password@3212</password></request>
<Address><line1>House no. 341</line1><line2>A B Street</line2><City>Sample city</City></Address>
---
The authentication details : xml_obj
The next step is to send the request.
The request : xml_obj
Additional info includes xml_obj

answered Nov 25, 2020 at 12:06

Jack Fleeting

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3 Comments

Suneha K S Over a year ago

@ Jack - I was trying it out on other types of files I had. I have edited the question to include that as well. Could you help me out with that too? Thanks in advance.

Jack Fleeting Over a year ago

@sunehaks Please post it as a separate question (per SO policy) and I'll be happy to take a look.

Suneha K S Over a year ago

@ Jack Fleeting - Sure.

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