Understanding how to quote XML string in order to serialize using Python's ElementTree

[Karim]

On 09/01/2016 21:54, kbtyo wrote:
> My specs:
>
> Python 3.4.3
> Windows 7
> IDE is Jupyter Notebooks
>
> What I have referenced:
>
> 1) http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1546717/python-escaping-strings-for-use-in-xml
>
> 2)
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7802418/how-to-properly-escape-single-and-double-quotes
>
> 3)http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4972210/escaping-characters-in-a-xml-file-with-python
>
>
> Here is the data (in CSV format) and script, respectively, (I have tried variations on serializing Column 'E' using both Sax and ElementTree):
>
> i)
>
> A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J
> "3","8","1","<Request TransactionID="3" RequestType="FOO"><InstitutionISO /><CallID>23</CallID><MemberID>12</MemberID><MemberPassword /><RequestData><AccountNumber>2</AccountNumber><AccountSuffix>85</AccountSuffix><AccountType>S</AccountType><MPIAcctType>Checking</MPIAcctType><TransactionCount>10</TransactionCount></RequestData></Request>","<Response TransactionID="2" RequestType="HoldInquiry"><ShareList>0000',0001,0070,</ShareList></Response>","1967-12-25 22:18:13.471000","2005-12-25 22:18:13.768000","2","70","0"
>
> ii)
>
> #!/usr/bin/python
> # -*-  coding: utf-8 -*-
> import os.path
> import sys
> import csv
> from io import StringIO
> import xml.etree.cElementTree as ElementTree
> from xml.etree.ElementTree import XMLParser
> import xml
> import xml.sax
> from xml.sax import ContentHandler
>
> class MyHandler(xml.sax.handler.ContentHandler):
>      def __init__(self):
>          self._charBuffer = []
>          self._result = []
>
>      def _getCharacterData(self):
>          data = ''.join(self._charBuffer).strip()
>          self._charBuffer = []
>          return data.strip() #remove strip() if whitespace is important
>
>      def parse(self, f):
>          xml.sax.parse(f, self)
>          return self._result
>      
>
>      def characters(self, data):
>          self._charBuffer.append(data)
>
>      def startElement(self, name, attrs):
>          if name == 'Response':
>              self._result.append({})
>
>      def endElement(self, name):
>          if not name == 'Response': self._result[-1][name] = self._getCharacterData()
>
> def read_data(path):
>      with open(path, 'rU', encoding='utf-8') as data:
>          reader = csv.DictReader(data, delimiter =',', quotechar="'", skipinitialspace=True)
>          for row in reader:
>              yield row
>
> if __name__ == "__main__":
>      empty = ''
>      Response = 'sample.csv'
>      for idx, row in enumerate(read_data(Response)):
>          if idx > 10: break
>          data = row['E']
>          print(data) # The before
>          data = data[1:-1]
>          data = ""'{}'"".format(data)
>          print(data) # Sanity check
> #         data = '<Response TransactionID="2" RequestType="HoldInquiry"><ShareList>0000',0001,0070,</ShareList></Response>'
>          try:
>              root = ElementTree.XML(data)
> #             print(root)
>          except StopIteration:
>              raise
>              pass
> #         xmlstring = StringIO(data)
> #         print(xmlstring)
> #         Handler = MyHandler().parse(xmlstring)
>
>
> Specifically, due to the quoting in the CSV file (which is beyond my control), I have had to resort to slicing the string (line 51) and then formatting it (line 52).
>
> However the print out from the above attempt is as follows:
>
> "<Response TransactionID="2" RequestType="HoldInquiry"><ShareList>0000'
> <Response TransactionID="2" RequestType="HoldInquiry"><ShareList>0000
>
>    File "<string>", line unknown
> ParseError: no element found: line 1, column 69
> Interestingly - if I assign the variable "data" (as in line 54) I receive this:
>
>    File "<ipython-input-80-7357c9272b92>", line 56
> data = '<Response TransactionID="2" RequestType="HoldInquiry"><ShareList>0000',0001,0070,</ShareList></Response>'
>                       ^
> SyntaxError: invalid token
>
> I seek feedback and information on how to address utilizing the most Pythonic means to do so. Ideally, is there a method that can leverage ElementTree. Thank you, in advance, for your feedback and guidance.

In  fact to get rid of double quote simply create your csv reader like that:

reader = csv.DictReader(data, dialect='excel', skipinitialspace=True)

You should then don't need to slice data variable and reformat it.

Karim