How to create XML file using Python? [duplicate]

Question

I would like to create an XML file. I tried it but the format looks bad, it only shows in one line.

Here is it:

import xml.etree.cElementTree as ET
root = ET.Element("data")
doc = ET.SubElement(root, "status", date="20210123")

ET.SubElement(doc, "name", name="john").text = "some value1"
ET.SubElement(doc, "class", name="abc").text = "some vlaue2"

tree = ET.ElementTree(root)
tree.write("FILE.xml")

The output is:

<data><status date="20210123"><name name="john">some value1</name><class name="abc">some vlaue2</class></status></data>

But my expectation output is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<data>
     <status>
          <name name="john">some value1</name>
          <class name="abc">some vlaue2</class>
     </status>
</data>

Anyone can give me an idea, please. I really appreciated it. Thank you

why it is important? who needs to read this file? see stackoverflow.com/questions/28813876/… — balderman
– balderman, Commented Mar 16, 2021 at 10:01
In Python 3.9, you can pretty-print with ElementTree: docs.python.org/3/library/… — mzjn
– mzjn, Commented Mar 17, 2021 at 14:14

Abhi_J · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-17 13:58:22Z

10

You need to

Use ET.tostring() to get your xml as a string
Use xml.dom.minidom to get a DOM object from the string
Use toprettyxml() of DOM object to get the xml as formatted string
Add encoding information to the xml declaration part by simply splitting and concating the formatted string
Write the string to a file

Code:

import xml.etree.cElementTree as ET
import xml.dom.minidom

m_encoding = 'UTF-8'

root = ET.Element("data")
doc = ET.SubElement(root, "status", date="20210123")
ET.SubElement(doc, "name", name="john").text = "some value1"
ET.SubElement(doc, "class", name="abc").text = "some vlaue2"

dom = xml.dom.minidom.parseString(ET.tostring(root))
xml_string = dom.toprettyxml()
part1, part2 = xml_string.split('?>')

with open("FILE.xml", 'w') as xfile:
    xfile.write(part1 + 'encoding=\"{}\"?>\n'.format(m_encoding) + part2)
    xfile.close()

Output file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<data>
    <status date="20210123">
        <name name="john">some value1</name>
        <class name="abc">some vlaue2</class>
    </status>
</data>

answered Mar 17, 2021 at 13:58

Abhi_J

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2 Comments

Cheries Over a year ago

Yeah! This is it. Perfect. Thank you so much Buddy :)

Cheries Over a year ago

Please check this post if you don't mind. Thanks in advance :) stackoverflow.com/q/66671021/11076819

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