xmltodict xmltodict is a Python module that makes working with XML feel like you are working with JSON , as in this "spec" : >> > print ( json . dumps ( xmltodict . parse ( """ ... <mydocument has="an attribute"> ... <and> ... <many>elements</many> ... <many>more elements</many> ... </and> ... <plus a="complex"> ... element as well ... </plus> ... </mydocument> ... """ ), indent = 4 )) { "mydocument" : { "@has" : "an attribute" , "and" : { "many" : [ "elements" , "more elements" ] }, "plus" : { "@a" : "complex" , "#text" : "element as well" } } } Namespace support By default, xmltodict does no XML namespace processing (it just treats namespace declarations as regular node attributes), but passing process_namespaces=True will make it expand namespaces for you: >> > xml = """ ... <root xmlns="http://defaultns.com/" ... xmlns:a="http://a.com/" ... xmlns:b="http://b.com/"> ... <x>1</x> ... <a:y>2</a:y> ... <b:z>3</b:z> ... </root> ... """ >> > xmltodict . parse ( xml , process_namespaces = True ) == { ... 'http://defaultns.com/:root' : { ... 'http://defaultns.com/:x' : '1' , ... 'http://a.com/:y' : '2' , ... 'http://b.com/:z' : '3' , ... } ... } True It also lets you collapse certain namespaces to shorthand prefixes, or skip them altogether: >> > namespaces = { ... 'http://defaultns.com/' : None , # skip this namespace ... 'http://a.com/' : 'ns_a' , # collapse "http://a.com/" -> "ns_a" ... } >> > xmltodict . parse ( xml , process_namespaces = True , namespaces = namespaces ) == { ... 'root' : { ... 'x' : '1' , ... 'ns_a:y' : '2' , ... 'http://b.com/:z' : '3' , ... }, ... } True Streaming mode xmltodict is very fast ( Expat -based) and has a streaming mode with a small memory footprint, suitable for big XML dumps like Discogs or Wikipedia : >> > def handle_artist ( _ , artist ): ... print ( artist [ 'name' ]) ... return True >> > >> > xmltodict . parse ( GzipFile ( 'discogs_artists.xml.gz' ), ... item_depth = 2 , item_callback = handle_artist ) A Perfect Circle Fantomas King Crimson Chris Potter ... It can also be used from the command line to pipe objects to a script like this: import sys , marshal while True : _ , article = marshal . load ( sys . stdin ) print ( article [ 'title' ]) $ bunzip2 enwiki-pages-articles.xml.bz2 | xmltodict.py 2 | myscript.py AccessibleComputing Anarchism AfghanistanHistory AfghanistanGeography AfghanistanPeople AfghanistanCommunications Autism ... Or just cache the dicts so you don't have to parse that big XML file again. You do this only once: $ bunzip2 enwiki-pages-articles.xml.bz2 | xmltodict.py 2 | gzip > enwiki.dicts.gz And you reuse the dicts with every script that needs them: $ gunzip enwiki.dicts.gz | script1.py $ gunzip enwiki.dicts.gz | script2.py ... Roundtripping You can also convert in the other direction, using the unparse() method: >> > mydict = { ... 'response' : { ... 'status' : 'good' , ... 'last_updated' : '2014-02-16T23:10:12Z' , ... } ... } >> > print ( unparse ( mydict , pretty = True )) < ? xml version = "1.0" encoding = "utf-8" ? > < response > < status > good < / status > < last_updated > 2014 - 02 - 16 T23 : 10 : 12 Z < / last_updated > < / response > Text values for nodes can be specified with the cdata_key key in the python dict, while node properties can be specified with the attr_prefix prefixed to the key name in the python dict. The default value for attr_prefix is @ and the default value for cdata_key is #text . >> > import xmltodict >> > >> > mydict = { ... 'text' : { ... '@color' : 'red' , ... '@stroke' : '2' , ... '#text' : 'This is a test' ... } ... } >> > print ( xmltodict . unparse ( mydict , pretty = True )) < ? xml version = "1.0" encoding = "utf-8" ? > < text stroke = "2" color = "red" > This is a test < / text > Lists that are specified under a key in a dictionary use the key as a tag for each item. But if a list does have a parent key, for example if a list exists inside another list, it does not have a tag to use and the items are converted to a string as shown in the example below. To give tags to nested lists, use the expand_iter keyword argument to provide a tag as demonstrated below. Note that using expand_iter will break roundtripping. >> > mydict = { ... "line" : { ... "points" : [ ... [ 1 , 5 ], ... [ 2 , 6 ], ... ] ... } ... } >> > print ( xmltodict . unparse ( mydict , pretty = True )) < ? xml version = "1.0" encoding = "utf-8" ? > < line > < points > [ 1 , 5 ] < / points > < points > [ 2 , 6 ] < / points > < / line > >> > print ( xmltodict . unparse ( mydict , pretty = True , expand_iter = "coord" )) < ? xml version = "1.0" encoding = "utf-8" ? > < line > < points > < coord > 1 < / coord > < coord > 5 < / coord > < / points > < points > < coord > 2 < / coord > < coord > 6 < / coord > < / points > < / line > Ok, how do I get it? Using pypi You just need to $ pip install xmltodict Using conda For installing xmltodict using Anaconda/Miniconda ( conda ) from the conda-forge channel all you need to do is: $ conda install -c conda-forge xmltodict RPM-based distro (Fedora, RHEL, …) There is an official Fedora package for xmltodict . $ sudo yum install python-xmltodict Arch Linux There is an official Arch Linux package for xmltodict . $ sudo pacman -S python-xmltodict Debian-based distro (Debian, Ubuntu, …) There is an official Debian package for xmltodict . $ sudo apt install python-xmltodict FreeBSD There is an official FreeBSD port for xmltodict . $ pkg install py36-xmltodict openSUSE/SLE (SLE 15, Leap 15, Tumbleweed) There is an official openSUSE package for xmltodict . # Python2 $ zypper in python2-xmltodict # Python3 $ zypper in python3-xmltodict
