xml getElementsByTagName w/o recursion?

[Chris Herborth]

Simon Dahlbacka wrote:
> this is perhaps not directly a python question, but how do I get a
> direct child element without going down the tree and possibly find
> another element with the same name there?

Install PyXML and use xml.xpath.Evaluate().

> <foo>
>  <bar>
>   <name>This is the interesting part</name>
>   <baz>
>    <something>...</something>
>    <name>this is what I DO NOT want</nameA
>   </baz>
>  </bar>
> </foo>
> 
> I am using xml.dom.minidom and I was thinking along the line of
> 
> ...
> fooNode.childNodes.getNamedNode("name")
> ...
> but that doesn't work..

# Find all of the <name> children of <bar>:
results = xml.xpath.Evaluate( "/foo/bar/child::name", fooNode )

# xml.xpath.Evaluate() returns a list of results, or []
nameNode = results[0]

Or, if you didn't know what the tags were but you still needed the first
<name> element:

results = xml.xpath.Evaluate( "/descendant::name[position()=1]", fooNode )
nameNode = results[0]

XPath (http://www.w3c.org/TR/xpath) can be a bit tricky to pick up, but it's 
_very_ powerful for navigating a DOM tree.

-- 
Chris Herborth                                     chrish at cryptocard.com
Documentation Overlord, CRYPTOCard Corp.      http://www.cryptocard.com/
Never send a monster to do the work of an evil scientist.