1:mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree` --- The ElementTree XML API
2========================================================
3
4.. module:: xml.etree.ElementTree
5   :synopsis: Implementation of the ElementTree API.
6
7.. moduleauthor:: Fredrik Lundh <[email protected]>
8
9**Source code:** :source:`Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py`
10
11--------------
12
13The :mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree` module implements a simple and efficient API
14for parsing and creating XML data.
15
16.. versionchanged:: 3.3
17   This module will use a fast implementation whenever available.
18
19.. deprecated:: 3.3
20   The :mod:`xml.etree.cElementTree` module is deprecated.
21
22
23.. warning::
24
25   The :mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree` module is not secure against
26   maliciously constructed data.  If you need to parse untrusted or
27   unauthenticated data see :ref:`xml-vulnerabilities`.
28
29Tutorial
30--------
31
32This is a short tutorial for using :mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree` (``ET`` in
33short).  The goal is to demonstrate some of the building blocks and basic
34concepts of the module.
35
36XML tree and elements
37^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
38
39XML is an inherently hierarchical data format, and the most natural way to
40represent it is with a tree.  ``ET`` has two classes for this purpose -
41:class:`ElementTree` represents the whole XML document as a tree, and
42:class:`Element` represents a single node in this tree.  Interactions with
43the whole document (reading and writing to/from files) are usually done
44on the :class:`ElementTree` level.  Interactions with a single XML element
45and its sub-elements are done on the :class:`Element` level.
46
47.. _elementtree-parsing-xml:
48
49Parsing XML
50^^^^^^^^^^^
51
52We'll be using the following XML document as the sample data for this section:
53
54.. code-block:: xml
55
56   <?xml version="1.0"?>
57   <data>
58       <country name="Liechtenstein">
59           <rank>1</rank>
60           <year>2008</year>
61           <gdppc>141100</gdppc>
62           <neighbor name="Austria" direction="E"/>
63           <neighbor name="Switzerland" direction="W"/>
64       </country>
65       <country name="Singapore">
66           <rank>4</rank>
67           <year>2011</year>
68           <gdppc>59900</gdppc>
69           <neighbor name="Malaysia" direction="N"/>
70       </country>
71       <country name="Panama">
72           <rank>68</rank>
73           <year>2011</year>
74           <gdppc>13600</gdppc>
75           <neighbor name="Costa Rica" direction="W"/>
76           <neighbor name="Colombia" direction="E"/>
77       </country>
78   </data>
79
80We can import this data by reading from a file::
81
82   import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
83   tree = ET.parse('country_data.xml')
84   root = tree.getroot()
85
86Or directly from a string::
87
88   root = ET.fromstring(country_data_as_string)
89
90:func:`fromstring` parses XML from a string directly into an :class:`Element`,
91which is the root element of the parsed tree.  Other parsing functions may
92create an :class:`ElementTree`.  Check the documentation to be sure.
93
94As an :class:`Element`, ``root`` has a tag and a dictionary of attributes::
95
96   >>> root.tag
97   'data'
98   >>> root.attrib
99   {}
100
101It also has children nodes over which we can iterate::
102
103   >>> for child in root:
104   ...     print(child.tag, child.attrib)
105   ...
106   country {'name': 'Liechtenstein'}
107   country {'name': 'Singapore'}
108   country {'name': 'Panama'}
109
110Children are nested, and we can access specific child nodes by index::
111
112   >>> root[0][1].text
113   '2008'
114
115
116.. note::
117
118   Not all elements of the XML input will end up as elements of the
119   parsed tree. Currently, this module skips over any XML comments,
120   processing instructions, and document type declarations in the
121   input. Nevertheless, trees built using this module's API rather
122   than parsing from XML text can have comments and processing
123   instructions in them; they will be included when generating XML
124   output. A document type declaration may be accessed by passing a
125   custom :class:`TreeBuilder` instance to the :class:`XMLParser`
126   constructor.
127
128
129.. _elementtree-pull-parsing:
130
131Pull API for non-blocking parsing
132^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
133
134Most parsing functions provided by this module require the whole document
135to be read at once before returning any result.  It is possible to use an
136:class:`XMLParser` and feed data into it incrementally, but it is a push API that
137calls methods on a callback target, which is too low-level and inconvenient for
138most needs.  Sometimes what the user really wants is to be able to parse XML
139incrementally, without blocking operations, while enjoying the convenience of
140fully constructed :class:`Element` objects.
141
142The most powerful tool for doing this is :class:`XMLPullParser`.  It does not
143require a blocking read to obtain the XML data, and is instead fed with data
144incrementally with :meth:`XMLPullParser.feed` calls.  To get the parsed XML
145elements, call :meth:`XMLPullParser.read_events`.  Here is an example::
146
147   >>> parser = ET.XMLPullParser(['start', 'end'])
148   >>> parser.feed('<mytag>sometext')
149   >>> list(parser.read_events())
150   [('start', <Element 'mytag' at 0x7fa66db2be58>)]
151   >>> parser.feed(' more text</mytag>')
152   >>> for event, elem in parser.read_events():
153   ...     print(event)
154   ...     print(elem.tag, 'text=', elem.text)
155   ...
156   end
157
158The obvious use case is applications that operate in a non-blocking fashion
159where the XML data is being received from a socket or read incrementally from
160some storage device.  In such cases, blocking reads are unacceptable.
161
162Because it's so flexible, :class:`XMLPullParser` can be inconvenient to use for
163simpler use-cases.  If you don't mind your application blocking on reading XML
164data but would still like to have incremental parsing capabilities, take a look
165at :func:`iterparse`.  It can be useful when you're reading a large XML document
166and don't want to hold it wholly in memory.
167
168Finding interesting elements
169^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
170
171:class:`Element` has some useful methods that help iterate recursively over all
172the sub-tree below it (its children, their children, and so on).  For example,
173:meth:`Element.iter`::
174
175   >>> for neighbor in root.iter('neighbor'):
176   ...     print(neighbor.attrib)
177   ...
178   {'name': 'Austria', 'direction': 'E'}
179   {'name': 'Switzerland', 'direction': 'W'}
180   {'name': 'Malaysia', 'direction': 'N'}
181   {'name': 'Costa Rica', 'direction': 'W'}
182   {'name': 'Colombia', 'direction': 'E'}
183
184:meth:`Element.findall` finds only elements with a tag which are direct
185children of the current element.  :meth:`Element.find` finds the *first* child
186with a particular tag, and :attr:`Element.text` accesses the element's text
187content.  :meth:`Element.get` accesses the element's attributes::
188
189   >>> for country in root.findall('country'):
190   ...     rank = country.find('rank').text
191   ...     name = country.get('name')
192   ...     print(name, rank)
193   ...
194   Liechtenstein 1
195   Singapore 4
196   Panama 68
197
198More sophisticated specification of which elements to look for is possible by
199using :ref:`XPath <elementtree-xpath>`.
200
201Modifying an XML File
202^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
203
204:class:`ElementTree` provides a simple way to build XML documents and write them to files.
205The :meth:`ElementTree.write` method serves this purpose.
206
207Once created, an :class:`Element` object may be manipulated by directly changing
208its fields (such as :attr:`Element.text`), adding and modifying attributes
209(:meth:`Element.set` method), as well as adding new children (for example
210with :meth:`Element.append`).
211
212Let's say we want to add one to each country's rank, and add an ``updated``
213attribute to the rank element::
214
215   >>> for rank in root.iter('rank'):
216   ...     new_rank = int(rank.text) + 1
217   ...     rank.text = str(new_rank)
218   ...     rank.set('updated', 'yes')
219   ...
220   >>> tree.write('output.xml')
221
222Our XML now looks like this:
223
224.. code-block:: xml
225
226   <?xml version="1.0"?>
227   <data>
228       <country name="Liechtenstein">
229           <rank updated="yes">2</rank>
230           <year>2008</year>
231           <gdppc>141100</gdppc>
232           <neighbor name="Austria" direction="E"/>
233           <neighbor name="Switzerland" direction="W"/>
234       </country>
235       <country name="Singapore">
236           <rank updated="yes">5</rank>
237           <year>2011</year>
238           <gdppc>59900</gdppc>
239           <neighbor name="Malaysia" direction="N"/>
240       </country>
241       <country name="Panama">
242           <rank updated="yes">69</rank>
243           <year>2011</year>
244           <gdppc>13600</gdppc>
245           <neighbor name="Costa Rica" direction="W"/>
246           <neighbor name="Colombia" direction="E"/>
247       </country>
248   </data>
249
250We can remove elements using :meth:`Element.remove`.  Let's say we want to
251remove all countries with a rank higher than 50::
252
253   >>> for country in root.findall('country'):
254   ...     # using root.findall() to avoid removal during traversal
255   ...     rank = int(country.find('rank').text)
256   ...     if rank > 50:
257   ...         root.remove(country)
258   ...
259   >>> tree.write('output.xml')
260
261Note that concurrent modification while iterating can lead to problems,
262just like when iterating and modifying Python lists or dicts.
263Therefore, the example first collects all matching elements with
264``root.findall()``, and only then iterates over the list of matches.
265
266Our XML now looks like this:
267
268.. code-block:: xml
269
270   <?xml version="1.0"?>
271   <data>
272       <country name="Liechtenstein">
273           <rank updated="yes">2</rank>
274           <year>2008</year>
275           <gdppc>141100</gdppc>
276           <neighbor name="Austria" direction="E"/>
277           <neighbor name="Switzerland" direction="W"/>
278       </country>
279       <country name="Singapore">
280           <rank updated="yes">5</rank>
281           <year>2011</year>
282           <gdppc>59900</gdppc>
283           <neighbor name="Malaysia" direction="N"/>
284       </country>
285   </data>
286
287Building XML documents
288^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
289
290The :func:`SubElement` function also provides a convenient way to create new
291sub-elements for a given element::
292
293   >>> a = ET.Element('a')
294   >>> b = ET.SubElement(a, 'b')
295   >>> c = ET.SubElement(a, 'c')
296   >>> d = ET.SubElement(c, 'd')
297   >>> ET.dump(a)
298   <a><b /><c><d /></c></a>
299
300Parsing XML with Namespaces
301^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
302
303If the XML input has `namespaces
304<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_namespace>`__, tags and attributes
305with prefixes in the form ``prefix:sometag`` get expanded to
306``{uri}sometag`` where the *prefix* is replaced by the full *URI*.
307Also, if there is a `default namespace
308<https://www.w3.org/TR/xml-names/#defaulting>`__,
309that full URI gets prepended to all of the non-prefixed tags.
310
311Here is an XML example that incorporates two namespaces, one with the
312prefix "fictional" and the other serving as the default namespace:
313
314.. code-block:: xml
315
316    <?xml version="1.0"?>
317    <actors xmlns:fictional="http://characters.example.com"
318            xmlns="http://people.example.com">
319        <actor>
320            <name>John Cleese</name>
321            <fictional:character>Lancelot</fictional:character>
322            <fictional:character>Archie Leach</fictional:character>
323        </actor>
324        <actor>
325            <name>Eric Idle</name>
326            <fictional:character>Sir Robin</fictional:character>
327            <fictional:character>Gunther</fictional:character>
328            <fictional:character>Commander Clement</fictional:character>
329        </actor>
330    </actors>
331
332One way to search and explore this XML example is to manually add the
333URI to every tag or attribute in the xpath of a
334:meth:`~Element.find` or :meth:`~Element.findall`::
335
336    root = fromstring(xml_text)
337    for actor in root.findall('{http://people.example.com}actor'):
338        name = actor.find('{http://people.example.com}name')
339        print(name.text)
340        for char in actor.findall('{http://characters.example.com}character'):
341            print(' |-->', char.text)
342
343A better way to search the namespaced XML example is to create a
344dictionary with your own prefixes and use those in the search functions::
345
346    ns = {'real_person': 'http://people.example.com',
347          'role': 'http://characters.example.com'}
348
349    for actor in root.findall('real_person:actor', ns):
350        name = actor.find('real_person:name', ns)
351        print(name.text)
352        for char in actor.findall('role:character', ns):
353            print(' |-->', char.text)
354
355These two approaches both output::
356
357    John Cleese
358     |--> Lancelot
359     |--> Archie Leach
360    Eric Idle
361     |--> Sir Robin
362     |--> Gunther
363     |--> Commander Clement
364
365
366.. _elementtree-xpath:
367
368XPath support
369-------------
370
371This module provides limited support for
372`XPath expressions <https://www.w3.org/TR/xpath>`_ for locating elements in a
373tree.  The goal is to support a small subset of the abbreviated syntax; a full
374XPath engine is outside the scope of the module.
375
376Example
377^^^^^^^
378
379Here's an example that demonstrates some of the XPath capabilities of the
380module.  We'll be using the ``countrydata`` XML document from the
381:ref:`Parsing XML <elementtree-parsing-xml>` section::
382
383   import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
384
385   root = ET.fromstring(countrydata)
386
387   # Top-level elements
388   root.findall(".")
389
390   # All 'neighbor' grand-children of 'country' children of the top-level
391   # elements
392   root.findall("./country/neighbor")
393
394   # Nodes with name='Singapore' that have a 'year' child
395   root.findall(".//year/..[@name='Singapore']")
396
397   # 'year' nodes that are children of nodes with name='Singapore'
398   root.findall(".//*[@name='Singapore']/year")
399
400   # All 'neighbor' nodes that are the second child of their parent
401   root.findall(".//neighbor[2]")
402
403For XML with namespaces, use the usual qualified ``{namespace}tag`` notation::
404
405   # All dublin-core "title" tags in the document
406   root.findall(".//{http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/}title")
407
408
409Supported XPath syntax
410^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
411
412.. tabularcolumns:: |l|L|
413
414+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
415| Syntax                | Meaning                                              |
416+=======================+======================================================+
417| ``tag``               | Selects all child elements with the given tag.       |
418|                       | For example, ``spam`` selects all child elements     |
419|                       | named ``spam``, and ``spam/egg`` selects all         |
420|                       | grandchildren named ``egg`` in all children named    |
421|                       | ``spam``.  ``{namespace}*`` selects all tags in the  |
422|                       | given namespace, ``{*}spam`` selects tags named      |
423|                       | ``spam`` in any (or no) namespace, and ``{}*``       |
424|                       | only selects tags that are not in a namespace.       |
425|                       |                                                      |
426|                       | .. versionchanged:: 3.8                              |
427|                       |    Support for star-wildcards was added.             |
428+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
429| ``*``                 | Selects all child elements, including comments and   |
430|                       | processing instructions.  For example, ``*/egg``     |
431|                       | selects all grandchildren named ``egg``.             |
432+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
433| ``.``                 | Selects the current node.  This is mostly useful     |
434|                       | at the beginning of the path, to indicate that it's  |
435|                       | a relative path.                                     |
436+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
437| ``//``                | Selects all subelements, on all levels beneath the   |
438|                       | current  element.  For example, ``.//egg`` selects   |
439|                       | all ``egg`` elements in the entire tree.             |
440+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
441| ``..``                | Selects the parent element.  Returns ``None`` if the |
442|                       | path attempts to reach the ancestors of the start    |
443|                       | element (the element ``find`` was called on).        |
444+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
445| ``[@attrib]``         | Selects all elements that have the given attribute.  |
446+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
447| ``[@attrib='value']`` | Selects all elements for which the given attribute   |
448|                       | has the given value.  The value cannot contain       |
449|                       | quotes.                                              |
450+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
451| ``[@attrib!='value']``| Selects all elements for which the given attribute   |
452|                       | does not have the given value. The value cannot      |
453|                       | contain quotes.                                      |
454|                       |                                                      |
455|                       | .. versionadded:: 3.10                               |
456+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
457| ``[tag]``             | Selects all elements that have a child named         |
458|                       | ``tag``.  Only immediate children are supported.     |
459+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
460| ``[.='text']``        | Selects all elements whose complete text content,    |
461|                       | including descendants, equals the given ``text``.    |
462|                       |                                                      |
463|                       | .. versionadded:: 3.7                                |
464+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
465| ``[.!='text']``       | Selects all elements whose complete text content,    |
466|                       | including descendants, does not equal the given      |
467|                       | ``text``.                                            |
468|                       |                                                      |
469|                       | .. versionadded:: 3.10                               |
470+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
471| ``[tag='text']``      | Selects all elements that have a child named         |
472|                       | ``tag`` whose complete text content, including       |
473|                       | descendants, equals the given ``text``.              |
474+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
475| ``[tag!='text']``     | Selects all elements that have a child named         |
476|                       | ``tag`` whose complete text content, including       |
477|                       | descendants, does not equal the given ``text``.      |
478|                       |                                                      |
479|                       | .. versionadded:: 3.10                               |
480+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
481| ``[position]``        | Selects all elements that are located at the given   |
482|                       | position.  The position can be either an integer     |
483|                       | (1 is the first position), the expression ``last()`` |
484|                       | (for the last position), or a position relative to   |
485|                       | the last position (e.g. ``last()-1``).               |
486+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
487
488Predicates (expressions within square brackets) must be preceded by a tag
489name, an asterisk, or another predicate.  ``position`` predicates must be
490preceded by a tag name.
491
492Reference
493---------
494
495.. _elementtree-functions:
496
497Functions
498^^^^^^^^^
499
500.. function:: canonicalize(xml_data=None, *, out=None, from_file=None, **options)
501
502   `C14N 2.0 <https://www.w3.org/TR/xml-c14n2/>`_ transformation function.
503
504   Canonicalization is a way to normalise XML output in a way that allows
505   byte-by-byte comparisons and digital signatures.  It reduced the freedom
506   that XML serializers have and instead generates a more constrained XML
507   representation.  The main restrictions regard the placement of namespace
508   declarations, the ordering of attributes, and ignorable whitespace.
509
510   This function takes an XML data string (*xml_data*) or a file path or
511   file-like object (*from_file*) as input, converts it to the canonical
512   form, and writes it out using the *out* file(-like) object, if provided,
513   or returns it as a text string if not.  The output file receives text,
514   not bytes.  It should therefore be opened in text mode with ``utf-8``
515   encoding.
516
517   Typical uses::
518
519      xml_data = "<root>...</root>"
520      print(canonicalize(xml_data))
521
522      with open("c14n_output.xml", mode='w', encoding='utf-8') as out_file:
523          canonicalize(xml_data, out=out_file)
524
525      with open("c14n_output.xml", mode='w', encoding='utf-8') as out_file:
526          canonicalize(from_file="inputfile.xml", out=out_file)
527
528   The configuration *options* are as follows:
529
530   - *with_comments*: set to true to include comments (default: false)
531   - *strip_text*: set to true to strip whitespace before and after text content
532                   (default: false)
533   - *rewrite_prefixes*: set to true to replace namespace prefixes by "n{number}"
534                         (default: false)
535   - *qname_aware_tags*: a set of qname aware tag names in which prefixes
536                         should be replaced in text content (default: empty)
537   - *qname_aware_attrs*: a set of qname aware attribute names in which prefixes
538                          should be replaced in text content (default: empty)
539   - *exclude_attrs*: a set of attribute names that should not be serialised
540   - *exclude_tags*: a set of tag names that should not be serialised
541
542   In the option list above, "a set" refers to any collection or iterable of
543   strings, no ordering is expected.
544
545   .. versionadded:: 3.8
546
547
548.. function:: Comment(text=None)
549
550   Comment element factory.  This factory function creates a special element
551   that will be serialized as an XML comment by the standard serializer.  The
552   comment string can be either a bytestring or a Unicode string.  *text* is a
553   string containing the comment string.  Returns an element instance
554   representing a comment.
555
556   Note that :class:`XMLParser` skips over comments in the input
557   instead of creating comment objects for them. An :class:`ElementTree` will
558   only contain comment nodes if they have been inserted into to
559   the tree using one of the :class:`Element` methods.
560
561.. function:: dump(elem)
562
563   Writes an element tree or element structure to sys.stdout.  This function
564   should be used for debugging only.
565
566   The exact output format is implementation dependent.  In this version, it's
567   written as an ordinary XML file.
568
569   *elem* is an element tree or an individual element.
570
571   .. versionchanged:: 3.8
572      The :func:`dump` function now preserves the attribute order specified
573      by the user.
574
575
576.. function:: fromstring(text, parser=None)
577
578   Parses an XML section from a string constant.  Same as :func:`XML`.  *text*
579   is a string containing XML data.  *parser* is an optional parser instance.
580   If not given, the standard :class:`XMLParser` parser is used.
581   Returns an :class:`Element` instance.
582
583
584.. function:: fromstringlist(sequence, parser=None)
585
586   Parses an XML document from a sequence of string fragments.  *sequence* is a
587   list or other sequence containing XML data fragments.  *parser* is an
588   optional parser instance.  If not given, the standard :class:`XMLParser`
589   parser is used.  Returns an :class:`Element` instance.
590
591   .. versionadded:: 3.2
592
593
594.. function:: indent(tree, space="  ", level=0)
595
596   Appends whitespace to the subtree to indent the tree visually.
597   This can be used to generate pretty-printed XML output.
598   *tree* can be an Element or ElementTree.  *space* is the whitespace
599   string that will be inserted for each indentation level, two space
600   characters by default.  For indenting partial subtrees inside of an
601   already indented tree, pass the initial indentation level as *level*.
602
603   .. versionadded:: 3.9
604
605
606.. function:: iselement(element)
607
608   Check if an object appears to be a valid element object.  *element* is an
609   element instance.  Return ``True`` if this is an element object.
610
611
612.. function:: iterparse(source, events=None, parser=None)
613
614   Parses an XML section into an element tree incrementally, and reports what's
615   going on to the user.  *source* is a filename or :term:`file object`
616   containing XML data.  *events* is a sequence of events to report back.  The
617   supported events are the strings ``"start"``, ``"end"``, ``"comment"``,
618   ``"pi"``, ``"start-ns"`` and ``"end-ns"``
619   (the "ns" events are used to get detailed namespace
620   information).  If *events* is omitted, only ``"end"`` events are reported.
621   *parser* is an optional parser instance.  If not given, the standard
622   :class:`XMLParser` parser is used.  *parser* must be a subclass of
623   :class:`XMLParser` and can only use the default :class:`TreeBuilder` as a
624   target.  Returns an :term:`iterator` providing ``(event, elem)`` pairs.
625
626   Note that while :func:`iterparse` builds the tree incrementally, it issues
627   blocking reads on *source* (or the file it names).  As such, it's unsuitable
628   for applications where blocking reads can't be made.  For fully non-blocking
629   parsing, see :class:`XMLPullParser`.
630
631   .. note::
632
633      :func:`iterparse` only guarantees that it has seen the ">" character of a
634      starting tag when it emits a "start" event, so the attributes are defined,
635      but the contents of the text and tail attributes are undefined at that
636      point.  The same applies to the element children; they may or may not be
637      present.
638
639      If you need a fully populated element, look for "end" events instead.
640
641   .. deprecated:: 3.4
642      The *parser* argument.
643
644   .. versionchanged:: 3.8
645      The ``comment`` and ``pi`` events were added.
646
647
648.. function:: parse(source, parser=None)
649
650   Parses an XML section into an element tree.  *source* is a filename or file
651   object containing XML data.  *parser* is an optional parser instance.  If
652   not given, the standard :class:`XMLParser` parser is used.  Returns an
653   :class:`ElementTree` instance.
654
655
656.. function:: ProcessingInstruction(target, text=None)
657
658   PI element factory.  This factory function creates a special element that
659   will be serialized as an XML processing instruction.  *target* is a string
660   containing the PI target.  *text* is a string containing the PI contents, if
661   given.  Returns an element instance, representing a processing instruction.
662
663   Note that :class:`XMLParser` skips over processing instructions
664   in the input instead of creating comment objects for them. An
665   :class:`ElementTree` will only contain processing instruction nodes if
666   they have been inserted into to the tree using one of the
667   :class:`Element` methods.
668
669.. function:: register_namespace(prefix, uri)
670
671   Registers a namespace prefix.  The registry is global, and any existing
672   mapping for either the given prefix or the namespace URI will be removed.
673   *prefix* is a namespace prefix.  *uri* is a namespace uri.  Tags and
674   attributes in this namespace will be serialized with the given prefix, if at
675   all possible.
676
677   .. versionadded:: 3.2
678
679
680.. function:: SubElement(parent, tag, attrib={}, **extra)
681
682   Subelement factory.  This function creates an element instance, and appends
683   it to an existing element.
684
685   The element name, attribute names, and attribute values can be either
686   bytestrings or Unicode strings.  *parent* is the parent element.  *tag* is
687   the subelement name.  *attrib* is an optional dictionary, containing element
688   attributes.  *extra* contains additional attributes, given as keyword
689   arguments.  Returns an element instance.
690
691
692.. function:: tostring(element, encoding="us-ascii", method="xml", *, \
693                       xml_declaration=None, default_namespace=None, \
694                       short_empty_elements=True)
695
696   Generates a string representation of an XML element, including all
697   subelements.  *element* is an :class:`Element` instance.  *encoding* [1]_ is
698   the output encoding (default is US-ASCII).  Use ``encoding="unicode"`` to
699   generate a Unicode string (otherwise, a bytestring is generated).  *method*
700   is either ``"xml"``, ``"html"`` or ``"text"`` (default is ``"xml"``).
701   *xml_declaration*, *default_namespace* and *short_empty_elements* has the same
702   meaning as in :meth:`ElementTree.write`. Returns an (optionally) encoded string
703   containing the XML data.
704
705   .. versionadded:: 3.4
706      The *short_empty_elements* parameter.
707
708   .. versionadded:: 3.8
709      The *xml_declaration* and *default_namespace* parameters.
710
711   .. versionchanged:: 3.8
712      The :func:`tostring` function now preserves the attribute order
713      specified by the user.
714
715
716.. function:: tostringlist(element, encoding="us-ascii", method="xml", *, \
717                           xml_declaration=None, default_namespace=None, \
718                           short_empty_elements=True)
719
720   Generates a string representation of an XML element, including all
721   subelements.  *element* is an :class:`Element` instance.  *encoding* [1]_ is
722   the output encoding (default is US-ASCII).  Use ``encoding="unicode"`` to
723   generate a Unicode string (otherwise, a bytestring is generated).  *method*
724   is either ``"xml"``, ``"html"`` or ``"text"`` (default is ``"xml"``).
725   *xml_declaration*, *default_namespace* and *short_empty_elements* has the same
726   meaning as in :meth:`ElementTree.write`. Returns a list of (optionally) encoded
727   strings containing the XML data. It does not guarantee any specific sequence,
728   except that ``b"".join(tostringlist(element)) == tostring(element)``.
729
730   .. versionadded:: 3.2
731
732   .. versionadded:: 3.4
733      The *short_empty_elements* parameter.
734
735   .. versionadded:: 3.8
736      The *xml_declaration* and *default_namespace* parameters.
737
738   .. versionchanged:: 3.8
739      The :func:`tostringlist` function now preserves the attribute order
740      specified by the user.
741
742
743.. function:: XML(text, parser=None)
744
745   Parses an XML section from a string constant.  This function can be used to
746   embed "XML literals" in Python code.  *text* is a string containing XML
747   data.  *parser* is an optional parser instance.  If not given, the standard
748   :class:`XMLParser` parser is used.  Returns an :class:`Element` instance.
749
750
751.. function:: XMLID(text, parser=None)
752
753   Parses an XML section from a string constant, and also returns a dictionary
754   which maps from element id:s to elements.  *text* is a string containing XML
755   data.  *parser* is an optional parser instance.  If not given, the standard
756   :class:`XMLParser` parser is used.  Returns a tuple containing an
757   :class:`Element` instance and a dictionary.
758
759
760.. _elementtree-xinclude:
761
762XInclude support
763----------------
764
765This module provides limited support for
766`XInclude directives <https://www.w3.org/TR/xinclude/>`_, via the :mod:`xml.etree.ElementInclude` helper module.  This module can be used to insert subtrees and text strings into element trees, based on information in the tree.
767
768Example
769^^^^^^^
770
771Here's an example that demonstrates use of the XInclude module. To include an XML document in the current document, use the ``{http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude}include`` element and set the **parse** attribute to ``"xml"``, and use the **href** attribute to specify the document to include.
772
773.. code-block:: xml
774
775    <?xml version="1.0"?>
776    <document xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
777      <xi:include href="source.xml" parse="xml" />
778    </document>
779
780By default, the **href** attribute is treated as a file name. You can use custom loaders to override this behaviour. Also note that the standard helper does not support XPointer syntax.
781
782To process this file, load it as usual, and pass the root element to the :mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree` module:
783
784.. code-block:: python
785
786   from xml.etree import ElementTree, ElementInclude
787
788   tree = ElementTree.parse("document.xml")
789   root = tree.getroot()
790
791   ElementInclude.include(root)
792
793The ElementInclude module replaces the ``{http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude}include`` element with the root element from the **source.xml** document. The result might look something like this:
794
795.. code-block:: xml
796
797    <document xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
798      <para>This is a paragraph.</para>
799    </document>
800
801If the **parse** attribute is omitted, it defaults to "xml". The href attribute is required.
802
803To include a text document, use the ``{http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude}include`` element, and set the **parse** attribute to "text":
804
805.. code-block:: xml
806
807    <?xml version="1.0"?>
808    <document xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
809      Copyright (c) <xi:include href="year.txt" parse="text" />.
810    </document>
811
812The result might look something like:
813
814.. code-block:: xml
815
816    <document xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
817      Copyright (c) 2003.
818    </document>
819
820Reference
821---------
822
823.. _elementinclude-functions:
824
825Functions
826^^^^^^^^^
827
828.. function:: xml.etree.ElementInclude.default_loader( href, parse, encoding=None)
829   :module:
830
831   Default loader. This default loader reads an included resource from disk.  *href* is a URL.
832   *parse* is for parse mode either "xml" or "text".  *encoding*
833   is an optional text encoding.  If not given, encoding is ``utf-8``.  Returns the
834   expanded resource.  If the parse mode is ``"xml"``, this is an ElementTree
835   instance.  If the parse mode is "text", this is a Unicode string.  If the
836   loader fails, it can return None or raise an exception.
837
838
839.. function:: xml.etree.ElementInclude.include( elem, loader=None, base_url=None, \
840                                                max_depth=6)
841   :module:
842
843   This function expands XInclude directives.  *elem* is the root element.  *loader* is
844   an optional resource loader.  If omitted, it defaults to :func:`default_loader`.
845   If given, it should be a callable that implements the same interface as
846   :func:`default_loader`.  *base_url* is base URL of the original file, to resolve
847   relative include file references.  *max_depth* is the maximum number of recursive
848   inclusions.  Limited to reduce the risk of malicious content explosion. Pass a
849   negative value to disable the limitation.
850
851   Returns the expanded resource.  If the parse mode is
852   ``"xml"``, this is an ElementTree instance.  If the parse mode is "text",
853   this is a Unicode string.  If the loader fails, it can return None or
854   raise an exception.
855
856   .. versionadded:: 3.9
857      The *base_url* and *max_depth* parameters.
858
859
860.. _elementtree-element-objects:
861
862Element Objects
863^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
864
865.. class:: Element(tag, attrib={}, **extra)
866
867   Element class.  This class defines the Element interface, and provides a
868   reference implementation of this interface.
869
870   The element name, attribute names, and attribute values can be either
871   bytestrings or Unicode strings.  *tag* is the element name.  *attrib* is
872   an optional dictionary, containing element attributes.  *extra* contains
873   additional attributes, given as keyword arguments.
874
875
876   .. attribute:: tag
877
878      A string identifying what kind of data this element represents (the
879      element type, in other words).
880
881
882   .. attribute:: text
883                  tail
884
885      These attributes can be used to hold additional data associated with
886      the element.  Their values are usually strings but may be any
887      application-specific object.  If the element is created from
888      an XML file, the *text* attribute holds either the text between
889      the element's start tag and its first child or end tag, or ``None``, and
890      the *tail* attribute holds either the text between the element's
891      end tag and the next tag, or ``None``.  For the XML data
892
893      .. code-block:: xml
894
895         <a><b>1<c>2<d/>3</c></b>4</a>
896
897      the *a* element has ``None`` for both *text* and *tail* attributes,
898      the *b* element has *text* ``"1"`` and *tail* ``"4"``,
899      the *c* element has *text* ``"2"`` and *tail* ``None``,
900      and the *d* element has *text* ``None`` and *tail* ``"3"``.
901
902      To collect the inner text of an element, see :meth:`itertext`, for
903      example ``"".join(element.itertext())``.
904
905      Applications may store arbitrary objects in these attributes.
906
907
908   .. attribute:: attrib
909
910      A dictionary containing the element's attributes.  Note that while the
911      *attrib* value is always a real mutable Python dictionary, an ElementTree
912      implementation may choose to use another internal representation, and
913      create the dictionary only if someone asks for it.  To take advantage of
914      such implementations, use the dictionary methods below whenever possible.
915
916   The following dictionary-like methods work on the element attributes.
917
918
919   .. method:: clear()
920
921      Resets an element.  This function removes all subelements, clears all
922      attributes, and sets the text and tail attributes to ``None``.
923
924
925   .. method:: get(key, default=None)
926
927      Gets the element attribute named *key*.
928
929      Returns the attribute value, or *default* if the attribute was not found.
930
931
932   .. method:: items()
933
934      Returns the element attributes as a sequence of (name, value) pairs.  The
935      attributes are returned in an arbitrary order.
936
937
938   .. method:: keys()
939
940      Returns the elements attribute names as a list.  The names are returned
941      in an arbitrary order.
942
943
944   .. method:: set(key, value)
945
946      Set the attribute *key* on the element to *value*.
947
948   The following methods work on the element's children (subelements).
949
950
951   .. method:: append(subelement)
952
953      Adds the element *subelement* to the end of this element's internal list
954      of subelements.  Raises :exc:`TypeError` if *subelement* is not an
955      :class:`Element`.
956
957
958   .. method:: extend(subelements)
959
960      Appends *subelements* from a sequence object with zero or more elements.
961      Raises :exc:`TypeError` if a subelement is not an :class:`Element`.
962
963      .. versionadded:: 3.2
964
965
966   .. method:: find(match, namespaces=None)
967
968      Finds the first subelement matching *match*.  *match* may be a tag name
969      or a :ref:`path <elementtree-xpath>`.  Returns an element instance
970      or ``None``.  *namespaces* is an optional mapping from namespace prefix
971      to full name.  Pass ``''`` as prefix to move all unprefixed tag names
972      in the expression into the given namespace.
973
974
975   .. method:: findall(match, namespaces=None)
976
977      Finds all matching subelements, by tag name or
978      :ref:`path <elementtree-xpath>`.  Returns a list containing all matching
979      elements in document order.  *namespaces* is an optional mapping from
980      namespace prefix to full name.  Pass ``''`` as prefix to move all
981      unprefixed tag names in the expression into the given namespace.
982
983
984   .. method:: findtext(match, default=None, namespaces=None)
985
986      Finds text for the first subelement matching *match*.  *match* may be
987      a tag name or a :ref:`path <elementtree-xpath>`.  Returns the text content
988      of the first matching element, or *default* if no element was found.
989      Note that if the matching element has no text content an empty string
990      is returned. *namespaces* is an optional mapping from namespace prefix
991      to full name.  Pass ``''`` as prefix to move all unprefixed tag names
992      in the expression into the given namespace.
993
994
995   .. method:: insert(index, subelement)
996
997      Inserts *subelement* at the given position in this element.  Raises
998      :exc:`TypeError` if *subelement* is not an :class:`Element`.
999
1000
1001   .. method:: iter(tag=None)
1002
1003      Creates a tree :term:`iterator` with the current element as the root.
1004      The iterator iterates over this element and all elements below it, in
1005      document (depth first) order.  If *tag* is not ``None`` or ``'*'``, only
1006      elements whose tag equals *tag* are returned from the iterator.  If the
1007      tree structure is modified during iteration, the result is undefined.
1008
1009      .. versionadded:: 3.2
1010
1011
1012   .. method:: iterfind(match, namespaces=None)
1013
1014      Finds all matching subelements, by tag name or
1015      :ref:`path <elementtree-xpath>`.  Returns an iterable yielding all
1016      matching elements in document order. *namespaces* is an optional mapping
1017      from namespace prefix to full name.
1018
1019
1020      .. versionadded:: 3.2
1021
1022
1023   .. method:: itertext()
1024
1025      Creates a text iterator.  The iterator loops over this element and all
1026      subelements, in document order, and returns all inner text.
1027
1028      .. versionadded:: 3.2
1029
1030
1031   .. method:: makeelement(tag, attrib)
1032
1033      Creates a new element object of the same type as this element.  Do not
1034      call this method, use the :func:`SubElement` factory function instead.
1035
1036
1037   .. method:: remove(subelement)
1038
1039      Removes *subelement* from the element.  Unlike the find\* methods this
1040      method compares elements based on the instance identity, not on tag value
1041      or contents.
1042
1043   :class:`Element` objects also support the following sequence type methods
1044   for working with subelements: :meth:`~object.__delitem__`,
1045   :meth:`~object.__getitem__`, :meth:`~object.__setitem__`,
1046   :meth:`~object.__len__`.
1047
1048   Caution: Elements with no subelements will test as ``False``.  This behavior
1049   will change in future versions.  Use specific ``len(elem)`` or ``elem is
1050   None`` test instead. ::
1051
1052     element = root.find('foo')
1053
1054     if not element:  # careful!
1055         print("element not found, or element has no subelements")
1056
1057     if element is None:
1058         print("element not found")
1059
1060   Prior to Python 3.8, the serialisation order of the XML attributes of
1061   elements was artificially made predictable by sorting the attributes by
1062   their name. Based on the now guaranteed ordering of dicts, this arbitrary
1063   reordering was removed in Python 3.8 to preserve the order in which
1064   attributes were originally parsed or created by user code.
1065
1066   In general, user code should try not to depend on a specific ordering of
1067   attributes, given that the `XML Information Set
1068   <https://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset/>`_ explicitly excludes the attribute
1069   order from conveying information. Code should be prepared to deal with
1070   any ordering on input. In cases where deterministic XML output is required,
1071   e.g. for cryptographic signing or test data sets, canonical serialisation
1072   is available with the :func:`canonicalize` function.
1073
1074   In cases where canonical output is not applicable but a specific attribute
1075   order is still desirable on output, code should aim for creating the
1076   attributes directly in the desired order, to avoid perceptual mismatches
1077   for readers of the code. In cases where this is difficult to achieve, a
1078   recipe like the following can be applied prior to serialisation to enforce
1079   an order independently from the Element creation::
1080
1081     def reorder_attributes(root):
1082         for el in root.iter():
1083             attrib = el.attrib
1084             if len(attrib) > 1:
1085                 # adjust attribute order, e.g. by sorting
1086                 attribs = sorted(attrib.items())
1087                 attrib.clear()
1088                 attrib.update(attribs)
1089
1090
1091.. _elementtree-elementtree-objects:
1092
1093ElementTree Objects
1094^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1095
1096
1097.. class:: ElementTree(element=None, file=None)
1098
1099   ElementTree wrapper class.  This class represents an entire element
1100   hierarchy, and adds some extra support for serialization to and from
1101   standard XML.
1102
1103   *element* is the root element.  The tree is initialized with the contents
1104   of the XML *file* if given.
1105
1106
1107   .. method:: _setroot(element)
1108
1109      Replaces the root element for this tree.  This discards the current
1110      contents of the tree, and replaces it with the given element.  Use with
1111      care.  *element* is an element instance.
1112
1113
1114   .. method:: find(match, namespaces=None)
1115
1116      Same as :meth:`Element.find`, starting at the root of the tree.
1117
1118
1119   .. method:: findall(match, namespaces=None)
1120
1121      Same as :meth:`Element.findall`, starting at the root of the tree.
1122
1123
1124   .. method:: findtext(match, default=None, namespaces=None)
1125
1126      Same as :meth:`Element.findtext`, starting at the root of the tree.
1127
1128
1129   .. method:: getroot()
1130
1131      Returns the root element for this tree.
1132
1133
1134   .. method:: iter(tag=None)
1135
1136      Creates and returns a tree iterator for the root element.  The iterator
1137      loops over all elements in this tree, in section order.  *tag* is the tag
1138      to look for (default is to return all elements).
1139
1140
1141   .. method:: iterfind(match, namespaces=None)
1142
1143      Same as :meth:`Element.iterfind`, starting at the root of the tree.
1144
1145      .. versionadded:: 3.2
1146
1147
1148   .. method:: parse(source, parser=None)
1149
1150      Loads an external XML section into this element tree.  *source* is a file
1151      name or :term:`file object`.  *parser* is an optional parser instance.
1152      If not given, the standard :class:`XMLParser` parser is used.  Returns the
1153      section root element.
1154
1155
1156   .. method:: write(file, encoding="us-ascii", xml_declaration=None, \
1157                     default_namespace=None, method="xml", *, \
1158                     short_empty_elements=True)
1159
1160      Writes the element tree to a file, as XML.  *file* is a file name, or a
1161      :term:`file object` opened for writing.  *encoding* [1]_ is the output
1162      encoding (default is US-ASCII).
1163      *xml_declaration* controls if an XML declaration should be added to the
1164      file.  Use ``False`` for never, ``True`` for always, ``None``
1165      for only if not US-ASCII or UTF-8 or Unicode (default is ``None``).
1166      *default_namespace* sets the default XML namespace (for "xmlns").
1167      *method* is either ``"xml"``, ``"html"`` or ``"text"`` (default is
1168      ``"xml"``).
1169      The keyword-only *short_empty_elements* parameter controls the formatting
1170      of elements that contain no content.  If ``True`` (the default), they are
1171      emitted as a single self-closed tag, otherwise they are emitted as a pair
1172      of start/end tags.
1173
1174      The output is either a string (:class:`str`) or binary (:class:`bytes`).
1175      This is controlled by the *encoding* argument.  If *encoding* is
1176      ``"unicode"``, the output is a string; otherwise, it's binary.  Note that
1177      this may conflict with the type of *file* if it's an open
1178      :term:`file object`; make sure you do not try to write a string to a
1179      binary stream and vice versa.
1180
1181      .. versionadded:: 3.4
1182         The *short_empty_elements* parameter.
1183
1184      .. versionchanged:: 3.8
1185         The :meth:`write` method now preserves the attribute order specified
1186         by the user.
1187
1188
1189This is the XML file that is going to be manipulated::
1190
1191    <html>
1192        <head>
1193            <title>Example page</title>
1194        </head>
1195        <body>
1196            <p>Moved to <a href="http://example.org/">example.org</a>
1197            or <a href="http://example.com/">example.com</a>.</p>
1198        </body>
1199    </html>
1200
1201Example of changing the attribute "target" of every link in first paragraph::
1202
1203    >>> from xml.etree.ElementTree import ElementTree
1204    >>> tree = ElementTree()
1205    >>> tree.parse("index.xhtml")
1206    <Element 'html' at 0xb77e6fac>
1207    >>> p = tree.find("body/p")     # Finds first occurrence of tag p in body
1208    >>> p
1209    <Element 'p' at 0xb77ec26c>
1210    >>> links = list(p.iter("a"))   # Returns list of all links
1211    >>> links
1212    [<Element 'a' at 0xb77ec2ac>, <Element 'a' at 0xb77ec1cc>]
1213    >>> for i in links:             # Iterates through all found links
1214    ...     i.attrib["target"] = "blank"
1215    >>> tree.write("output.xhtml")
1216
1217.. _elementtree-qname-objects:
1218
1219QName Objects
1220^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1221
1222
1223.. class:: QName(text_or_uri, tag=None)
1224
1225   QName wrapper.  This can be used to wrap a QName attribute value, in order
1226   to get proper namespace handling on output.  *text_or_uri* is a string
1227   containing the QName value, in the form {uri}local, or, if the tag argument
1228   is given, the URI part of a QName.  If *tag* is given, the first argument is
1229   interpreted as a URI, and this argument is interpreted as a local name.
1230   :class:`QName` instances are opaque.
1231
1232
1233
1234.. _elementtree-treebuilder-objects:
1235
1236TreeBuilder Objects
1237^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1238
1239
1240.. class:: TreeBuilder(element_factory=None, *, comment_factory=None, \
1241                       pi_factory=None, insert_comments=False, insert_pis=False)
1242
1243   Generic element structure builder.  This builder converts a sequence of
1244   start, data, end, comment and pi method calls to a well-formed element
1245   structure.  You can use this class to build an element structure using
1246   a custom XML parser, or a parser for some other XML-like format.
1247
1248   *element_factory*, when given, must be a callable accepting two positional
1249   arguments: a tag and a dict of attributes.  It is expected to return a new
1250   element instance.
1251
1252   The *comment_factory* and *pi_factory* functions, when given, should behave
1253   like the :func:`Comment` and :func:`ProcessingInstruction` functions to
1254   create comments and processing instructions.  When not given, the default
1255   factories will be used.  When *insert_comments* and/or *insert_pis* is true,
1256   comments/pis will be inserted into the tree if they appear within the root
1257   element (but not outside of it).
1258
1259   .. method:: close()
1260
1261      Flushes the builder buffers, and returns the toplevel document
1262      element.  Returns an :class:`Element` instance.
1263
1264
1265   .. method:: data(data)
1266
1267      Adds text to the current element.  *data* is a string.  This should be
1268      either a bytestring, or a Unicode string.
1269
1270
1271   .. method:: end(tag)
1272
1273      Closes the current element.  *tag* is the element name.  Returns the
1274      closed element.
1275
1276
1277   .. method:: start(tag, attrs)
1278
1279      Opens a new element.  *tag* is the element name.  *attrs* is a dictionary
1280      containing element attributes.  Returns the opened element.
1281
1282
1283   .. method:: comment(text)
1284
1285      Creates a comment with the given *text*.  If ``insert_comments`` is true,
1286      this will also add it to the tree.
1287
1288      .. versionadded:: 3.8
1289
1290
1291   .. method:: pi(target, text)
1292
1293      Creates a comment with the given *target* name and *text*.  If
1294      ``insert_pis`` is true, this will also add it to the tree.
1295
1296      .. versionadded:: 3.8
1297
1298
1299   In addition, a custom :class:`TreeBuilder` object can provide the
1300   following methods:
1301
1302   .. method:: doctype(name, pubid, system)
1303
1304      Handles a doctype declaration.  *name* is the doctype name.  *pubid* is
1305      the public identifier.  *system* is the system identifier.  This method
1306      does not exist on the default :class:`TreeBuilder` class.
1307
1308      .. versionadded:: 3.2
1309
1310   .. method:: start_ns(prefix, uri)
1311
1312      Is called whenever the parser encounters a new namespace declaration,
1313      before the ``start()`` callback for the opening element that defines it.
1314      *prefix* is ``''`` for the default namespace and the declared
1315      namespace prefix name otherwise.  *uri* is the namespace URI.
1316
1317      .. versionadded:: 3.8
1318
1319   .. method:: end_ns(prefix)
1320
1321      Is called after the ``end()`` callback of an element that declared
1322      a namespace prefix mapping, with the name of the *prefix* that went
1323      out of scope.
1324
1325      .. versionadded:: 3.8
1326
1327
1328.. class:: C14NWriterTarget(write, *, \
1329             with_comments=False, strip_text=False, rewrite_prefixes=False, \
1330             qname_aware_tags=None, qname_aware_attrs=None, \
1331             exclude_attrs=None, exclude_tags=None)
1332
1333   A `C14N 2.0 <https://www.w3.org/TR/xml-c14n2/>`_ writer.  Arguments are the
1334   same as for the :func:`canonicalize` function.  This class does not build a
1335   tree but translates the callback events directly into a serialised form
1336   using the *write* function.
1337
1338   .. versionadded:: 3.8
1339
1340
1341.. _elementtree-xmlparser-objects:
1342
1343XMLParser Objects
1344^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1345
1346
1347.. class:: XMLParser(*, target=None, encoding=None)
1348
1349   This class is the low-level building block of the module.  It uses
1350   :mod:`xml.parsers.expat` for efficient, event-based parsing of XML.  It can
1351   be fed XML data incrementally with the :meth:`feed` method, and parsing
1352   events are translated to a push API - by invoking callbacks on the *target*
1353   object.  If *target* is omitted, the standard :class:`TreeBuilder` is used.
1354   If *encoding* [1]_ is given, the value overrides the
1355   encoding specified in the XML file.
1356
1357   .. versionchanged:: 3.8
1358      Parameters are now :ref:`keyword-only <keyword-only_parameter>`.
1359      The *html* argument no longer supported.
1360
1361
1362   .. method:: close()
1363
1364      Finishes feeding data to the parser.  Returns the result of calling the
1365      ``close()`` method of the *target* passed during construction; by default,
1366      this is the toplevel document element.
1367
1368
1369   .. method:: feed(data)
1370
1371      Feeds data to the parser.  *data* is encoded data.
1372
1373   :meth:`XMLParser.feed` calls *target*\'s ``start(tag, attrs_dict)`` method
1374   for each opening tag, its ``end(tag)`` method for each closing tag, and data
1375   is processed by method ``data(data)``.  For further supported callback
1376   methods, see the :class:`TreeBuilder` class.  :meth:`XMLParser.close` calls
1377   *target*\'s method ``close()``. :class:`XMLParser` can be used not only for
1378   building a tree structure. This is an example of counting the maximum depth
1379   of an XML file::
1380
1381    >>> from xml.etree.ElementTree import XMLParser
1382    >>> class MaxDepth:                     # The target object of the parser
1383    ...     maxDepth = 0
1384    ...     depth = 0
1385    ...     def start(self, tag, attrib):   # Called for each opening tag.
1386    ...         self.depth += 1
1387    ...         if self.depth > self.maxDepth:
1388    ...             self.maxDepth = self.depth
1389    ...     def end(self, tag):             # Called for each closing tag.
1390    ...         self.depth -= 1
1391    ...     def data(self, data):
1392    ...         pass            # We do not need to do anything with data.
1393    ...     def close(self):    # Called when all data has been parsed.
1394    ...         return self.maxDepth
1395    ...
1396    >>> target = MaxDepth()
1397    >>> parser = XMLParser(target=target)
1398    >>> exampleXml = """
1399    ... <a>
1400    ...   <b>
1401    ...   </b>
1402    ...   <b>
1403    ...     <c>
1404    ...       <d>
1405    ...       </d>
1406    ...     </c>
1407    ...   </b>
1408    ... </a>"""
1409    >>> parser.feed(exampleXml)
1410    >>> parser.close()
1411    4
1412
1413
1414.. _elementtree-xmlpullparser-objects:
1415
1416XMLPullParser Objects
1417^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1418
1419.. class:: XMLPullParser(events=None)
1420
1421   A pull parser suitable for non-blocking applications.  Its input-side API is
1422   similar to that of :class:`XMLParser`, but instead of pushing calls to a
1423   callback target, :class:`XMLPullParser` collects an internal list of parsing
1424   events and lets the user read from it. *events* is a sequence of events to
1425   report back.  The supported events are the strings ``"start"``, ``"end"``,
1426   ``"comment"``, ``"pi"``, ``"start-ns"`` and ``"end-ns"`` (the "ns" events
1427   are used to get detailed namespace information).  If *events* is omitted,
1428   only ``"end"`` events are reported.
1429
1430   .. method:: feed(data)
1431
1432      Feed the given bytes data to the parser.
1433
1434   .. method:: close()
1435
1436      Signal the parser that the data stream is terminated. Unlike
1437      :meth:`XMLParser.close`, this method always returns :const:`None`.
1438      Any events not yet retrieved when the parser is closed can still be
1439      read with :meth:`read_events`.
1440
1441   .. method:: read_events()
1442
1443      Return an iterator over the events which have been encountered in the
1444      data fed to the
1445      parser.  The iterator yields ``(event, elem)`` pairs, where *event* is a
1446      string representing the type of event (e.g. ``"end"``) and *elem* is the
1447      encountered :class:`Element` object, or other context value as follows.
1448
1449      * ``start``, ``end``: the current Element.
1450      * ``comment``, ``pi``: the current comment / processing instruction
1451      * ``start-ns``: a tuple ``(prefix, uri)`` naming the declared namespace
1452        mapping.
1453      * ``end-ns``: :const:`None` (this may change in a future version)
1454
1455      Events provided in a previous call to :meth:`read_events` will not be
1456      yielded again.  Events are consumed from the internal queue only when
1457      they are retrieved from the iterator, so multiple readers iterating in
1458      parallel over iterators obtained from :meth:`read_events` will have
1459      unpredictable results.
1460
1461   .. note::
1462
1463      :class:`XMLPullParser` only guarantees that it has seen the ">"
1464      character of a starting tag when it emits a "start" event, so the
1465      attributes are defined, but the contents of the text and tail attributes
1466      are undefined at that point.  The same applies to the element children;
1467      they may or may not be present.
1468
1469      If you need a fully populated element, look for "end" events instead.
1470
1471   .. versionadded:: 3.4
1472
1473   .. versionchanged:: 3.8
1474      The ``comment`` and ``pi`` events were added.
1475
1476
1477Exceptions
1478^^^^^^^^^^
1479
1480.. class:: ParseError
1481
1482   XML parse error, raised by the various parsing methods in this module when
1483   parsing fails.  The string representation of an instance of this exception
1484   will contain a user-friendly error message.  In addition, it will have
1485   the following attributes available:
1486
1487   .. attribute:: code
1488
1489      A numeric error code from the expat parser. See the documentation of
1490      :mod:`xml.parsers.expat` for the list of error codes and their meanings.
1491
1492   .. attribute:: position
1493
1494      A tuple of *line*, *column* numbers, specifying where the error occurred.
1495
1496.. rubric:: Footnotes
1497
1498.. [1] The encoding string included in XML output should conform to the
1499   appropriate standards.  For example, "UTF-8" is valid, but "UTF8" is
1500   not.  See https://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml11-20060816/#NT-EncodingDecl
1501   and https://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets/character-sets.xhtml.
1502