Reading and Writing XML Files in Python | Python read XML file
XML,orExtensibleMarkupLanguage,isamarkup-languagethatiscommonlyusedtostructure,store,andtransferdatabetweensystems.Whilenotascommonasitusedtobe,itisstillusedinserviceslikeRSSandSOAP,aswellasforstructuringfileslikeMicrosoftOfficedocuments.WithPythonbeingapopularlanguageforthewebanddataanalysis,itslikelyyoullneedtoreadorwriteXMLdataatsomepoint,inwhichcaseyoureinluck.ThroughoutthisarticlewellprimarilytakealookattheElementTree[1]moduleforreading,writing,andmodifyingXMLdata.Wellalsocompareitwitht...
XML, or Extensible Markup Language, is a markup-language that is commonly used to structure, store, and transfer data between systems. While not as common as it used to be, it is still used in services like RSS and SOAP, as well as for structuring files like Microsoft Office documents.
With Python being a popular language for the web and data analysis, its likely youll need to read or write XML data at some point, in which case youre in luck.
Throughout this article well primarily take a look at the ElementTree[1] module for reading, writing, and modifying XML data. Well also compare it with the older minidom[2] module in the first few sections so you can get a good comparison of the two.
The XML ModulesThe minidom, or Minimal DOM Implementation, is a simplified implementation of the Document Object Model (DOM). The DOM[3] is an application programming interface that treats XML as a tree structure, where each node in the tree is an object. Thus, the use of this...