Processing XML in Python with ElementTree

Question

I have a problem with ElementTree.iter().

So I tried this example in this link : http://eli.thegreenplace.net/2012/03/15/processing-xml-in-python-with-elementtree/

So here's what I've tried:

import elementtree.ElementTree as ET
tree = ET.parse('XML_file.xml')
root = tree.getroot()
for elem in tree.iter():
    print elem.tag, elem.attrib

And I get this error AttributeError: ElementTree instance has no attribute 'iter'

Additional info: The version of my Python is 2.4 I separately installed elementtree. Other examples in the link that I provide is working in my Python installed. Only the ElementTree.iter() is not working. Thanks in advance for all of your help. Cheers!

Answer 1

In your case, you should replace the .iter() by .getiterator(), and you possibly should call it for the root element, not for the tree (but I am not sure because I do not have the Python 2.4 and the module at my hands).

import elementtree.ElementTree as ET
tree = ET.parse('XML_file.xml')
root = tree.getroot()
for elem in root.getiterator():
    print elem.tag, elem.attrib

This is the older functionality that was deprecated in Python 2.7. For Python 2.7, the .iter() should work with the built-in module:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
tree = ET.parse('XML_file.xml')
root = tree.getroot()
for elem in root.iter():
    print elem.tag, elem.attrib

A side note: the standard module supports also direct iteration through the element node (i.e. no .iter() or whatever method called, just the for elem in root:). It differs from .iter() -- it goes only through the immediate descendant nodes. Similar functionality is implemented in the older versions as .getchildren().