Question

is it possible to build an XML string from a Python structure (e.g. nested lists, dictionaries, etc.) or it is a non-sense question?

Is there any standard tool?

Thanks

Answer 1

If you need some custom format, you can use xml.etree.ElementTree to programatically generate such a format. For example:

from xml.etree import ElementTree

def dict2xml(d, parent=None):
    if parent is None:
        parent = ElementTree.Element('xml')

    for key, value in d.items():
        if isinstance(value, str):
            element = ElementTree.SubElement(parent, key)
            element.text = value
    elif isinstance(value, dict):
            element = ElementTree.SubElement(parent, key)
            dict2xml(value, element)
    elif isinstance(value, list):
            for text in value:
            element = ElementTree.SubElement(parent, key)
            element.text = str(text)
        else:
            raise TypeError('Unexpected value type: {0}'
                            .format(type(value)))


    return parent

d = {'a': 'a contents',
     'b': {'c': 'c contents',
           'd': 'd contents',
           },
     'e': range(3),
     }

print ElementTree.tostring(dict2xml(d))

Generates the following output:

<xml><a>a contents</a><b><c>c contents</c><d>d contents</d></b><e>0</e><e>1</e><e>2</e></xml>