How can I extract elementary values with ElementTree in Python?

Question

I try to extract values attributes (ex. 'Filename') of that XML file in Python. Can you help me?

Here is the MC 'Librarytest.xml' file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<MPL Version="2.0" Title="Library">
<Item>
<Field Name="Filename">Y:\Styx\08 - Styx - Snowblind8. Snowblind.flac</Field>
<Field Name="Name">Snowblind</Field>
<Field Name="Artist">Styx</Field>
<Field Name="Album">Paradise Theater</Field>
<Field Name="Genre">Rock</Field>
</Item>
<Item>
<Field Name="Filename">Y:\David Gilmour\04 A Boat Lies Waiting.flac</Field>
<Field Name="Name">A Boat Lies Waiting</Field>
<Field Name="Artist">David Gilmour</Field>
<Field Name="Album">Rattle That Lock (Deluxe)</Field>
<Field Name="Genre">Progressive</Field>
</Item>
</MPL>

I try this:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
xml_file = 'C:/Users/ClientMD/Downloads/MC Librarytest.xml'
tree = ET.parse(xml_file)
root = tree.getroot()
for each in root.findall('.//Field'):
    rating = each.find('.//Filename')
    print ('Nothing' if rating is None else rating.text)

and I obtain:

Nothing... Nothing

Answer 1

Like this:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
xml_file = 'C:/Users/ClientMD/Downloads/MC Librarytest.xml'
tree = ET.parse(xml_file)
root = tree.getroot()
for each in root.findall('.//Field[@Name="Filename"]'):
    rating = each.text
    print ('Nothing' if rating is None else rating)

Output

Y:\Styx\08 - Styx - Snowblind8. Snowblind.flac
Y:\David Gilmour\04 A Boat Lies Waiting.flac

Answer 2

If you want to grab more elements and keep them under a single item context - you can use the below

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET


xml = '''<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<MPL Version="2.0" Title="Library">
<Item>
<Field Name="Filename">Y:\Styx\\08 - Styx - Snowblind8. Snowblind.flac</Field>
<Field Name="Name">Snowblind</Field>
<Field Name="Artist">Styx</Field>
<Field Name="Album">Paradise Theater</Field>
<Field Name="Genre">Rock</Field>
</Item>
<Item>
<Field Name="Filename">Y:\David Gilmour\\04 A Boat Lies Waiting.flac</Field>
<Field Name="Name">A Boat Lies Waiting</Field>
<Field Name="Artist">David Gilmour</Field>
<Field Name="Album">Rattle That Lock (Deluxe)</Field>
<Field Name="Genre">Progressive</Field>
</Item>
</MPL>'''

INTERESTING_NAMES = ['Filename','Artist']
data = []
root = ET.fromstring(xml)
for item in root.findall('.//Item'):
    temp = {}
    for name in INTERESTING_NAMES:
        temp[name] = item.find(f'Field[@Name="{name}"]').text
    data.append(temp)
print(data)

output

[{'Filename': 'Y:\\Styx\\08 - Styx - Snowblind8. Snowblind.flac', 'Artist': 'Styx'}, {'Filename': 'Y:\\David Gilmour\\04 A Boat Lies Waiting.flac', 'Artist': 'David Gilmour'}]