How to order xml element attributes in Python?

Question

When parsing an xml file into a Python ElementTree the attributes' order is mixed up because Python stores the attributes in a dictionary.

How can I change the order of the attributes in the dictionary?

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Robert Carter Mills
– Robert Carter Mills

2011-03-22 04:22:28 +00:00
Commented Mar 22, 2011 at 4:22 — Robert Carter Mills
– Robert Carter Mills, Commented Mar 22, 2011 at 4:22

phihag · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-21 17:31:44Z

6

XML attributes are by definition unordered¹, compare paragraph 3.1 of the official standard.

¹_{Technically, attribute lists are ordered, but the order is not significant, i.e. writers, transformers and parsers are free to switch it around as they like.}

answered Mar 21, 2011 at 17:31

phihag

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John Machin · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-25 05:18:07Z

2

Your self-answer is as you said long and cumbersome. It doesn't need to be. Also it will fail if (1) there are more than 10 keys (2) a dict has fewer keys than than expected.

Try this; it's much simpler:

>>> ordered_keys = ('z', 'y', 'e', 'x', 'w') # possible keys, in desired order

Note: the above line is all the setup that is required.

>>> dic = {'z':'a', 'y':'b', 'x':'c', 'w':'d'} # actual contents of a dictionary
>>> for k in ordered_keys:
...     if k in dic: # avoid trouble if a key is missing
...         print k, dic[k]
...
z a
y b
x c
w d
>>>

answered Mar 25, 2011 at 5:18

John Machin

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1 Comment

Robert Carter Mills Over a year ago

Thanks John! Yeah, only a day later and I started seeing many flaws in my noobish code. :\

user2665694 · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-21 17:30:46Z

0

XML does not define any ordering of attributes of a node. So the behavior is fine. If you make assumptions about the ordering of attributes then your assumptions are wrong. There is no ordering and you must not expect any kind of attribute ordering. So your question is invalid.

answered Mar 21, 2011 at 17:30

user2665694

Comments

Robert Carter Mills · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-26 01:59:00Z

0

You can not change the order of attributes internally in the dictionary. This is impossible unless you do some fancy hacking.

The solution therefore, is to manually access the attributes in the order you want them, or create a list of the keys/items and sort that the way you want.

edited Mar 26, 2011 at 1:59

answered Mar 23, 2011 at 1:33

Robert Carter Mills

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1 Comment

John Machin Over a year ago

"you will see that the order is lost" -- a dictionary has no order to lose.

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