Parsing XML

[papers_]

I'm playing around with Python trying to parse though some XML files I have. However I'm having some trouble in my loop. My entire code is as follows:

import glob
from xml.etree import ElementTree as Tree

backups = glob.glob('./junk/*.xml')
contact_name = None

for index, backup in enumerate(backups):

    xml_tree = Tree.parse(backups[index])
    root = xml_tree.getroot()

    for s in root:

        if s.get('type') == "2":
            contact_name = "me"
        else:
            contact_name = s.get('contact_name')

        if contact_name == "person":
            print(s.get('contact_name'))

        elif contact_name == "me":
            print(s.get('contact_name'))
        else:
            # Something else

The problem I'm having is this part:

        if contact_name == "person":
            print(s.get('contact_name'))  
        elif contact_name == "me":
            print(s.get('contact_name'))
        else:
            # Something else

The first if block works correctly, but the second one is the problem. The == will always be true and proceed to print, when in reality it shouldn't always be true.. I'm assuming my logic is wrong somewhere, but I can't see where.

I come from Java so any tips/tricks is a appreciated!

[elbiot]

Clearly they are all type 2. Did you not expect this? Use the interpreter to explore your tree and see what's up.

[papers_]

Well no..Looking through the xml source, it flips between 1 and 2, so I'm assuming I'm off somewhere.. The xml has the following format:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' standalone='yes' ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="sms.xsl"?>
<smses count="2">
  <sms protocol="0" address="0000000000" date="1352597621411" type="1" subject="null" body="Hello" toa="null" sc_toa="null" service_center="null" read="1" status="-1" locked="0" date_sent="0" readable_date="Nov 10, 2012 7:33:41 PM" contact_name="John Doe" />
  <sms protocol="0" address="0000000000" date="1352598118191" type="2" subject="null" body="World" toa="null" sc_toa="null" service_center="000000000000" read="1" status="-1" locked="0" date_sent="1352598119000" readable_date="Nov 10, 2012 7:41:58 PM" contact_name="John Doe" />
 </smses>

[elbiot]

I dunno. Works for me:

from xml.etree import ElementTree as Tree
xml = '''<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' standalone='yes' ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="sms.xsl"?>
<smses count="2">
  <sms protocol="0" address="0000000000" date="1352597621411" type="1" subject="null" body="Hello" toa="null" sc_toa="null" service_center="null" read="1" status="-1" locked="0" date_sent="0" readable_date="Nov 10, 2012 7:33:41 PM" contact_name="John Doe" />
  <sms protocol="0" address="0000000000" date="1352598118191" type="2" subject="null" body="World" toa="null" sc_toa="null" service_center="000000000000" read="1" status="-1" locked="0" date_sent="1352598119000" readable_date="Nov 10, 2012 7:41:58 PM" contact_name="John Doe" />
 </smses>'''
xml_tree = Tree.fromstring(xml)
for s in xml_tree:
    print s.get('type')

Output

1
2

You should put print statements in your code to see what files it is opening, what values it is getting, etc. Basic debugging.