lxml iterparse in python can't handle namespaces

Question

from lxml import etree
import StringIO

data= StringIO.StringIO('<root xmlns="http://some.random.schema"><a>One</a><a>Two</a><a>Three</a></root>')
docs = etree.iterparse(data,tag='a')
a,b = docs.next()


Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "iterparse.pxi", line 478, in lxml.etree.iterparse.__next__ (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:95348)
  File "iterparse.pxi", line 534, in lxml.etree.iterparse._read_more_events (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:95938)
StopIteration

Works fine untill I add the namespace to the root node. Any ideas as to what I can do as a work around, or the correct way of doing this? I need to be event driven due to very large files.

Answer 1

When there is a namespace attached, the tag isn't a, it's {http://some.random.schema}a. Try this (Python 3):

from lxml import etree
from io import BytesIO

xml = '''\
<root xmlns="http://some.random.schema">
  <a>One</a>
  <a>Two</a>
  <a>Three</a>
</root>'''
data = BytesIO(xml.encode())
docs = etree.iterparse(data, tag='{http://some.random.schema}a')
for event, elem in docs:
    print(f'{event}: {elem}')

or, in Python 2:

from lxml import etree
from StringIO import StringIO

xml = '''\
<root xmlns="http://some.random.schema">
  <a>One</a>
  <a>Two</a>
  <a>Three</a>
</root>'''
data = StringIO(xml)
docs = etree.iterparse(data, tag='{http://some.random.schema}a')
for event, elem in docs:
    print event, elem

This prints something like:

end: <Element {http://some.random.schema}a at 0x10941e730>
end: <Element {http://some.random.schema}a at 0x10941e8c0>
end: <Element {http://some.random.schema}a at 0x10941e960>

As @mihail-shcheglov pointed out, a wildcard * can also be used, which works for any or no namespace:

from lxml import etree
from io import BytesIO

xml = '''\
<root xmlns="http://some.random.schema">
  <a>One</a>
  <a>Two</a>
  <a>Three</a>
</root>'''
data = BytesIO(xml.encode())
docs = etree.iterparse(data, tag='{*}a')
for event, elem in docs:
    print(f'{event}: {elem}')

See lxml.etree docs for more.