[python] Get Element value with minidom with Python

I am creating a GUI frontend for the Eve Online API in Python.

I have successfully pulled the XML data from their server.

I am trying to grab the value from a node called "name":

from xml.dom.minidom import parse
dom = parse("C:\\eve.xml")
name = dom.getElementsByTagName('name')
print name

This seems to find the node, but the output is below:

[<DOM Element: name at 0x11e6d28>]

How could I get it to print the value of the node?

Here is a slightly modified answer of Henrik's for multiple nodes (ie. when getElementsByTagName returns more than one instance)

images = xml.getElementsByTagName("imageUrl")
for i in images:
    print " ".join(t.nodeValue for t in i.childNodes if t.nodeType == t.TEXT_NODE)

I know this question is pretty old now, but I thought you might have an easier time with ElementTree

from xml.etree import ElementTree as ET
import datetime

f = ET.XML(data)

for element in f:
    if element.tag == "currentTime":
        # Handle time data was pulled
        currentTime = datetime.datetime.strptime(element.text, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
    if element.tag == "cachedUntil":
        # Handle time until next allowed update
        cachedUntil = datetime.datetime.strptime(element.text, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
    if element.tag == "result":
        # Process list of skills
        pass

I know that's not super specific, but I just discovered it, and so far it's a lot easier to get my head around than the minidom (since so many nodes are essentially white space).

For instance, you have the tag name and the actual text together, just as you'd probably expect:

>>> element[0]
<Element currentTime at 40984d0>
>>> element[0].tag
'currentTime'
>>> element[0].text
'2010-04-12 02:45:45'e

The question has been answered, my contribution consists in clarifying one thing that may confuse beginners:

Some of the suggested and correct answers used firstChild.data and others used firstChild.nodeValue instead. In case you are wondering what is the different between them, you should remember they do the same thing because nodeValue is just an alias for data.

The reference to my statement can be found as a comment on the source code of minidom:

#nodeValue is an alias for data

you can use something like this.It worked out for me

doc = parse('C:\\eve.xml')
my_node_list = doc.getElementsByTagName("name")
my_n_node = my_node_list[0]
my_child = my_n_node.firstChild
my_text = my_child.data 
print my_text

The above answer is correct, namely:

name[0].firstChild.nodeValue

However for me, like others, my value was further down the tree:

name[0].firstChild.firstChild.nodeValue

To find this I used the following:

def scandown( elements, indent ):
    for el in elements:
        print("   " * indent + "nodeName: " + str(el.nodeName) )
        print("   " * indent + "nodeValue: " + str(el.nodeValue) )
        print("   " * indent + "childNodes: " + str(el.childNodes) )
        scandown(el.childNodes, indent + 1)

scandown( doc.getElementsByTagName('text'), 0 )

Running this for my simple SVG file created with Inkscape this gave me:

nodeName: text
nodeValue: None
childNodes: [<DOM Element: tspan at 0x10392c6d0>]
   nodeName: tspan
   nodeValue: None
   childNodes: [<DOM Text node "'MY STRING'">]
      nodeName: #text
      nodeValue: MY STRING
      childNodes: ()
nodeName: text
nodeValue: None
childNodes: [<DOM Element: tspan at 0x10392c800>]
   nodeName: tspan
   nodeValue: None
   childNodes: [<DOM Text node "'MY WORDS'">]
      nodeName: #text
      nodeValue: MY WORDS
      childNodes: ()

I used xml.dom.minidom, the various fields are explained on this page, MiniDom Python.

The above answer is correct, namely:

name[0].firstChild.nodeValue

However for me, like others, my value was further down the tree:

name[0].firstChild.firstChild.nodeValue

To find this I used the following:

def scandown( elements, indent ):
    for el in elements:
        print("   " * indent + "nodeName: " + str(el.nodeName) )
        print("   " * indent + "nodeValue: " + str(el.nodeValue) )
        print("   " * indent + "childNodes: " + str(el.childNodes) )
        scandown(el.childNodes, indent + 1)

scandown( doc.getElementsByTagName('text'), 0 )

Running this for my simple SVG file created with Inkscape this gave me:

nodeName: text
nodeValue: None
childNodes: [<DOM Element: tspan at 0x10392c6d0>]
   nodeName: tspan
   nodeValue: None
   childNodes: [<DOM Text node "'MY STRING'">]
      nodeName: #text
      nodeValue: MY STRING
      childNodes: ()
nodeName: text
nodeValue: None
childNodes: [<DOM Element: tspan at 0x10392c800>]
   nodeName: tspan
   nodeValue: None
   childNodes: [<DOM Text node "'MY WORDS'">]
      nodeName: #text
      nodeValue: MY WORDS
      childNodes: ()

I used xml.dom.minidom, the various fields are explained on this page, MiniDom Python.

Probably something like this if it's the text part you want...

from xml.dom.minidom import parse
dom = parse("C:\\eve.xml")
name = dom.getElementsByTagName('name')

print " ".join(t.nodeValue for t in name[0].childNodes if t.nodeType == t.TEXT_NODE)

The text part of a node is considered a node in itself placed as a child-node of the one you asked for. Thus you will want to go through all its children and find all child nodes that are text nodes. A node can have several text nodes; eg.

<name>
  blabla
  <somestuff>asdf</somestuff>
  znylpx
</name>

You want both 'blabla' and 'znylpx'; hence the " ".join(). You might want to replace the space with a newline or so, or perhaps by nothing.

Here is a slightly modified answer of Henrik's for multiple nodes (ie. when getElementsByTagName returns more than one instance)

images = xml.getElementsByTagName("imageUrl")
for i in images:
    print " ".join(t.nodeValue for t in i.childNodes if t.nodeType == t.TEXT_NODE)

I had a similar case, what worked for me was:

name.firstChild.childNodes[0].data

XML is supposed to be simple and it really is and I don't know why python's minidom did it so complicated... but it's how it's made

Probably something like this if it's the text part you want...

from xml.dom.minidom import parse
dom = parse("C:\\eve.xml")
name = dom.getElementsByTagName('name')

print " ".join(t.nodeValue for t in name[0].childNodes if t.nodeType == t.TEXT_NODE)

The text part of a node is considered a node in itself placed as a child-node of the one you asked for. Thus you will want to go through all its children and find all child nodes that are text nodes. A node can have several text nodes; eg.

<name>
  blabla
  <somestuff>asdf</somestuff>
  znylpx
</name>

You want both 'blabla' and 'znylpx'; hence the " ".join(). You might want to replace the space with a newline or so, or perhaps by nothing.

It's a tree, and there may be nested elements. Try:

def innerText(self, sep=''):
    t = ""
    for curNode in self.childNodes:
        if (curNode.nodeType == Node.TEXT_NODE):
            t += sep + curNode.nodeValue
        elif (curNode.nodeType == Node.ELEMENT_NODE):
            t += sep + curNode.innerText(sep=sep)
    return t

Probably something like this if it's the text part you want...

from xml.dom.minidom import parse
dom = parse("C:\\eve.xml")
name = dom.getElementsByTagName('name')

print " ".join(t.nodeValue for t in name[0].childNodes if t.nodeType == t.TEXT_NODE)

The text part of a node is considered a node in itself placed as a child-node of the one you asked for. Thus you will want to go through all its children and find all child nodes that are text nodes. A node can have several text nodes; eg.

<name>
  blabla
  <somestuff>asdf</somestuff>
  znylpx
</name>

You want both 'blabla' and 'znylpx'; hence the " ".join(). You might want to replace the space with a newline or so, or perhaps by nothing.

It's a tree, and there may be nested elements. Try:

def innerText(self, sep=''):
    t = ""
    for curNode in self.childNodes:
        if (curNode.nodeType == Node.TEXT_NODE):
            t += sep + curNode.nodeValue
        elif (curNode.nodeType == Node.ELEMENT_NODE):
            t += sep + curNode.innerText(sep=sep)
    return t

I had a similar case, what worked for me was:

name.firstChild.childNodes[0].data

XML is supposed to be simple and it really is and I don't know why python's minidom did it so complicated... but it's how it's made

you can use something like this.It worked out for me

doc = parse('C:\\eve.xml')
my_node_list = doc.getElementsByTagName("name")
my_n_node = my_node_list[0]
my_child = my_n_node.firstChild
my_text = my_child.data 
print my_text

I know this question is pretty old now, but I thought you might have an easier time with ElementTree

from xml.etree import ElementTree as ET
import datetime

f = ET.XML(data)

for element in f:
    if element.tag == "currentTime":
        # Handle time data was pulled
        currentTime = datetime.datetime.strptime(element.text, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
    if element.tag == "cachedUntil":
        # Handle time until next allowed update
        cachedUntil = datetime.datetime.strptime(element.text, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
    if element.tag == "result":
        # Process list of skills
        pass

I know that's not super specific, but I just discovered it, and so far it's a lot easier to get my head around than the minidom (since so many nodes are essentially white space).

For instance, you have the tag name and the actual text together, just as you'd probably expect:

>>> element[0]
<Element currentTime at 40984d0>
>>> element[0].tag
'currentTime'
>>> element[0].text
'2010-04-12 02:45:45'e

The question has been answered, my contribution consists in clarifying one thing that may confuse beginners:

Some of the suggested and correct answers used firstChild.data and others used firstChild.nodeValue instead. In case you are wondering what is the different between them, you should remember they do the same thing because nodeValue is just an alias for data.

The reference to my statement can be found as a comment on the source code of minidom:

#nodeValue is an alias for data