Python/BeautifulSoup - how to assign html code to variable

Question

How i can assign html code to a variable so later I could refer to it?

Example:

"div class='test'" - some html code



some_variable = "'div', {'class': ='test'}" *#assigning above to the variable*

print(soup.find(some_variable)) *# is not working*
print(soup.find('div', {"class": 'test'}) # **is working**

Andrej Kesely · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-28 16:39:52Z

3

You can store your search parameters inside dictionary and then use **:

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup


html_doc = '''
<div class="test">This I want</div>
<div class="other">This I dont want</div>
'''

soup = BeautifulSoup(html_doc, 'html.parser')

params = {'name': 'div', 'attrs': {'class': 'test'}}
    
print( soup.find(**params).text )

Prints:

This I want

Or: Use CSS selector:

selector = 'div.test'

print( soup.select_one(selector).text )

answered Sep 28, 2020 at 16:39

Andrej Kesely

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3 Comments

zarize Over a year ago

wow, thanks! good to see 2 solutions, but i think i ll stick to selector as it is more clearly for person who reads :P

pho Over a year ago

@zarize, for reference, the **params syntax is called "parameter unpacking", and it essentially "unpacks" the dict params into the keyword parameters of the soup.find function.

zarize Over a year ago

Thanks for explanation! I just wonder now... what if i would like to add .text method at the end of the selector? selector = 'div.test'.text wouldnt work of course but i would like to keep possibility to add dynamic method, how to achieve it?

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