is it possible to build an XML string from a Python structure (e.g. nested lists, dictionaries, etc.) or it is a non-sense question?
Is there any standard tool?
Thanks
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these nested list of dictionary contains tags of value?NPatel– NPatel2011-12-29 11:05:21 +00:00Commented Dec 29, 2011 at 11:05
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If you just want to save some Python objects, use pickle. Anything fully general for arbitary Python objects would end up very Python-specific so you might as well use pickle. If you want interop with some other language, you have to know which data formats (not just "XML" but the exact schema) you can support on the other ends as well, and you need to tell us so we can tell you which ones are supported by Python as well.user395760– user3957602011-12-29 11:08:29 +00:00Commented Dec 29, 2011 at 11:08
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I need XML to save data for MS Project and I was looking for something better than raw string building.Don– Don2011-12-29 13:58:09 +00:00Commented Dec 29, 2011 at 13:58
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2 Answers
There is no object-to-XML serialization in the standard library, but there is pyxser.
Comments
If you need some custom format, you can use xml.etree.ElementTree to programatically generate such a format. For example:
from xml.etree import ElementTree
def dict2xml(d, parent=None):
if parent is None:
parent = ElementTree.Element('xml')
for key, value in d.items():
if isinstance(value, str):
element = ElementTree.SubElement(parent, key)
element.text = value
elif isinstance(value, dict):
element = ElementTree.SubElement(parent, key)
dict2xml(value, element)
elif isinstance(value, list):
for text in value:
element = ElementTree.SubElement(parent, key)
element.text = str(text)
else:
raise TypeError('Unexpected value type: {0}'
.format(type(value)))
return parent
d = {'a': 'a contents',
'b': {'c': 'c contents',
'd': 'd contents',
},
'e': range(3),
}
print ElementTree.tostring(dict2xml(d))
Generates the following output:
<xml><a>a contents</a><b><c>c contents</c><d>d contents</d></b><e>0</e><e>1</e><e>2</e></xml>
