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python requests xml

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 2 min read

Python Requests XML

If you’re a Python developer working with web scraping, APIs, or just about any other web-related task, you may find yourself needing to call APIs that return XML data. Luckily, Python's requests library makes it easy to work with XML data.

Using the Requests Library with XML

The first step in working with XML data in Python is to import the requests library:


    import requests

Once you have imported the requests library, you can use its get() method to make a request to an API that returns XML data. Here's an example:


    response = requests.get('https://www.example.com/api/xml')

This will send a GET request to the specified URL and store the response in the response variable.

You can then access the XML data in the response using the content attribute:


    xml_data = response.content

At this point, you have the raw XML data. However, it can be helpful to parse this data into a more structured format so that you can work with it more easily.

Parsing XML Data in Python

To parse XML data in Python, you'll need to use an XML parsing library. Python has several built-in libraries for parsing XML, including ElementTree and minidom. However, there are also third-party libraries, such as lxml and xmltodict, that offer additional features and may be easier to use for certain tasks.

Here’s an example of how you can parse XML data with the built-in ElementTree library:


    import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

    # parse XML data
    root = ET.fromstring(xml_data)

    # iterate over elements
    for child in root:
        print(child.tag, child.text)

In this example, we first import the xml.etree.ElementTree library and then use its fromstring() method to parse the XML data.

We can then iterate over the elements in the XML data using a for loop, printing out each element's tag and text content.

Multiple Ways to Parse XML Data in Python

While the ElementTree library is built-in and easy to use, there are other third-party libraries that offer additional features and may be easier to use for certain tasks.

For example, the lxml library offers a more feature-rich API for parsing and manipulating XML data. Here's an example of how you can use it:


    from lxml import etree

    # parse XML data
    root = etree.fromstring(xml_data)

    # iterate over elements
    for child in root:
        print(child.tag, child.text)

Alternatively, if you're working with large XML files or want to parse XML data into a more Pythonic data structure, you may want to consider using the xmltodict library. Here's an example of how you can use it:


    import xmltodict

    # parse XML data into dictionary
    data_dict = xmltodict.parse(xml_data)

    # access elements in dictionary
    print(data_dict['root']['element'])

In this example, we first import the xmltodict library and use its parse() method to parse the XML data into a dictionary.

We can then access elements in the dictionary using standard Python dictionary syntax.

Conclusion

Working with XML data in Python is easy using the requests library and a variety of XML parsing libraries. Whether you're working with built-in libraries like ElementTree or third-party libraries like lxml and xmltodict, there are plenty of options for parsing and manipulating XML data in Python.

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