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Asked: 2026-06-17T22:35:03+00:00

html_doc= <html> <head></head> <body> <ul class=navigation></ul> </body> </html> link_doc= <p> <li><a href=http://example.com/elsie id=link1>Elsie</a></li> <li><a

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html_doc="""
<html>
    <head></head>
    <body>
        <ul class="navigation"></ul>
    </body>
</html>
"""
link_doc="""
<p>
<li><a href="http://example.com/elsie" id="link1">Elsie</a></li>
<li><a href="http://example.com/lacie" id="link2">Lacie</a></li>
<li><a href="http://example.com/tillie" id="link3">Tillie</a></li>
</p>
"""
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
soup = BeautifulSoup(html_doc)
link = BeautifulSoup(link_doc)

navigation = soup.find_all("ul", {"class" : "navigation"})
links = link.find_all('li')

for i in range(0,3): # assume I would like to write to 3 files
    for n in range(len(links)):
        navigation[0].append(links[n])
    output = navigation[0].prettify(formatter=None)
    file = open(str(i) + '.html', 'w')
    file.write(output)
    file.close()
    navigation[0].clear()

I have two simple documents like this. What I’d like to do is add some links between <ul class="navigation"> and write them to 3 files.

But also I’d like to add class attributes active to the <li> element depending on file order. For example 0.html should be like this:

<ul class="navigation">
 <li class="active">
  <a href="http://example.com/elsie" id="link1">
   Elsie
  </a>
 </li>
 <li>
  <a href="http://example.com/lacie" id="link2">
   Lacie
  </a>
 </li>
 <li>
  <a href="http://example.com/tillie" id="link3">
   Tillie
  </a>
 </li>
</ul>

1.html would be like this etc.

<ul class="navigation">
 <li>
  <a href="http://example.com/elsie" id="link1">
   Elsie
  </a>
 </li>
 <li class="active">
  <a href="http://example.com/lacie" id="link2">
   Lacie
  </a>
 </li>
 <li>
  <a href="http://example.com/tillie" id="link3">
   Tillie
  </a>
 </li>
</ul>

How can I do that?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    EDIT: I added a much better way of inserting a link. I hope this helps!

    edit x2: This should work now:

    Adding links in:

    from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
html = '<ul class="navigation"> foo <i>hi</i> bar</ul>'
soup = BeautifulSoup(html)
original_tag = soup.ul
new_tag = soup.new_tag('a', href='http://www.example.com')
new_tag.insert(0, 'Text!')
original_tag.append(new_tag)
print original_tag
# Prints:
# <ul class="navigation"> foo <i>hi</i> bar<a href="http://www.example.com">Text!</a></ul>
# If you don't want it to go to the last bit of the tag all the time, 
# use original_tag.insert(). Here's a link to the documentation about it:
# http://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/bs4/doc/#insert

    For adding your class=”active”, replace your last for loop with this:

    for i in range(0,3): # assume I would like to write to 3 files
    for n in range(len(links)):
        navigation[0].append(links[n])
    output = navigation[0].prettify(formatter=None)
    soup2 = BeautifulSoup(output)
    mylist = soup2.find_all('li')
    mylist[i]['class'] = 'active'
    filee = open(str(i) + '.html', 'w') # I changed it to filee to avoid confusion with the file function
    filee.write(str(soup2))
    filee.close()
    navigation[0].clear()
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