Python xml ElementTree from a string source?

Question

The ElementTree.parse reads from a file, how can I use this if I already have the XML data in a string?

Maybe I am missing something here, but there must be a way to use the ElementTree without writing out the string to a file and reading it again.

xml.etree.elementtree

score 298 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 31 '18 at 00:42

298

You can parse the text as a string, which creates an Element, and create an ElementTree using that Element.

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
tree = ET.ElementTree(ET.fromstring(xmlstring))

I just came across this issue and the documentation, while complete, is not very straightforward on the difference in usage between the parse() and fromstring() methods.

edited Jan 31 '18 at 00:42

Stevoisiak

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answered Aug 16 '13 at 20:09

dgassaway

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The second line can be simply `root = ET.fromstring(xmlstring)`. Equals `ET.parse('file.xml').getroot()`: https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/xml.etree.elementtree.html#parsing-xml – Anton Tarasenko Aug 11 '17 at 17:43
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@Anton, as the OP states, the idea is to generate an ElementTree, and not an Element. This is useful, for instance, when you want to use ElementTree.write(). – batbrat May 29 '18 at 12:35
If anyone is curious this also works for `lxml` – Louie Bafford Jan 28 '22 at 17:36

score 108 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 20 '21 at 15:33

108

If you're using xml.etree.ElementTree.parse to parse from a file, then you can use xml.etree.ElementTree.fromstring to get the root Element of the document. Often you don't actually need an ElementTree.

See xml.etree.ElementTree

edited Sep 20 '21 at 15:33

rjurney

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answered Mar 15 '09 at 01:36

Jim H.

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The problem is that ElementTree.fromstring generates an element, and not an ElementTree! Anyone knows how to work around this? – Samuel Lampa Nov 16 '12 at 17:13
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Same problem as @SamuelLampa mentioned. I is not a ElementTree, I am not able to do `getroot()` for this – Siddharth Menon Aug 21 '13 at 09:30
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@SamuelLampa see [dgassaway's answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/18281386/12744), use `ET.ElementTree(ET.fromstring(xmlstring))` – Colin Pickard Oct 11 '13 at 16:04
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for the correct answer, see the one provided by @dgassaway – 2.718 Sep 26 '14 at 00:15
Don't forget the import statements – Stevoisiak Nov 02 '17 at 16:11
What's the string version of iterparse(), i.e., fromstring's iterative version? – kakyo May 10 '18 at 09:22
@SiddharthMenon you don't need getroot() `fromstring` gives you the root already. – melMass Feb 25 '19 at 17:44
I corrected this answer by adding that `ElementTree.fromstring()` returns the root `Element` not an `ElementTree`. – rjurney Sep 20 '21 at 15:30

score 20 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 24 '19 at 15:13

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You need the xml.etree.ElementTree.fromstring(text)

from xml.etree.ElementTree import XML, fromstring
myxml = fromstring(text)

edited Dec 24 '19 at 15:13

Andrii Abramov

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answered Mar 15 '09 at 01:37

karlcow

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Yes, but this is not an `ElementTree` it is the root `Element`. This API is different and can't do all the same things. – rjurney Sep 20 '21 at 15:34

handle · Answer 4 · 2019-12-30T09:43:55.930

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io.StringIO is another option for getting XML into xml.etree.ElementTree:

import io
f = io.StringIO(xmlstring)
tree = ET.parse(f)
root = tree.getroot()

Hovever, it does not affect the XML declaration one would assume to be in tree (although that's needed for ElementTree.write()). See How to write XML declaration using xml.etree.ElementTree.

edited Dec 30 '19 at 09:43

answered Dec 30 '19 at 09:36

handle

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Python xml ElementTree from a string source?

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