How to generate XML using Python?

Python provides multiple ways to generate XML documents. The most common approaches are using the dicttoxml package to convert dictionaries to XML, or using Python's built-in xml.etree.ElementTree module for more control.

Method 1: Using dicttoxml Package

First, install the dicttoxml package ?

$ pip install dicttoxml

Basic XML Generation

Convert a dictionary to XML using the dicttoxml method ?

import dicttoxml

data = {
    'foo': 45,
    'bar': {
        'baz': "Hello"
    }
}
xml = dicttoxml.dicttoxml(data)
print(xml)

b'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><root><foo type="int">45</foo><bar type="dict"><baz type="str">Hello</baz></bar></root>'

Pretty Printing XML

Format the XML output for better readability using toprettyxml ?

import dicttoxml
from xml.dom.minidom import parseString

data = {
    'foo': 45,
    'bar': {
        'baz': "Hello"
    }
}
xml = dicttoxml.dicttoxml(data)
dom = parseString(xml)
print(dom.toprettyxml())

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<root>
    <foo type="int">45</foo>
    <bar type="dict">
        <baz type="str">Hello</baz>
    </bar>
</root>

Method 2: Using xml.etree.ElementTree

Python's built-in ElementTree module provides more control over XML structure ?

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

# Create root element
root = ET.Element("root")

# Add child elements
foo_elem = ET.SubElement(root, "foo")
foo_elem.text = "45"

bar_elem = ET.SubElement(root, "bar")
baz_elem = ET.SubElement(bar_elem, "baz")
baz_elem.text = "Hello"

# Generate XML string
xml_string = ET.tostring(root, encoding='unicode')
print(xml_string)

<root><foo>45</foo><bar><baz>Hello</baz></bar></root>

Comparison

Conclusion

Use dicttoxml for quick dictionary-to-XML conversion with automatic type detection. Use ElementTree when you need precise control over XML structure and attributes.