Python minidom

last modified March 7, 2025

In this article, we show how to use the minidom module in Python for XML parsing and creation. The minidom module offers a lightweight DOM interface for XML, part of Python’s standard library.

The minidom module is useful for reading, writing, and modifying XML documents using a DOM-based approach.

Key features:

- Simple DOM API for parsing and manipulating XML data.

- Represents XML as a tree of nodes (elements, attributes, etc.).

- Suitable for small to medium-sized XML files.

Parsing XML with minidom

This example shows how to parse an XML document using minidom.

main.py

from xml.dom import minidom

XML data

xml_data = """ <products> <product> <id>1</id> <name>Product 1</name> <price>10.99</price> <quantity>30</quantity> </product> <product> <id>2</id> <name>Product 2</name> <price>20.99</price> <quantity>130</quantity> </product> </products> """

Parse the XML data

doc = minidom.parseString(xml_data)

Get all product elements

products = doc.getElementsByTagName(‘product’)

Iterate over product elements

for product in products: id = product.getElementsByTagName(‘id’)[0].firstChild.data name = product.getElementsByTagName(’name’)[0].firstChild.data price = product.getElementsByTagName(‘price’)[0].firstChild.data qty = product.getElementsByTagName(‘quantity’)[0].firstChild.data print(f"Id: {id}, Name: {name}, Price: {price}, Quantity: {qty}")

Here, parseString parses the XML string into a DOM object. We use getElementsByTagName to find elements and extract their text with firstChild.data.

$ python main.py Id: 1, Name: Product 1, Price: 10.99, Quantity: 30 Id: 2, Name: Product 2, Price: 20.99, Quantity: 130

Modifying XML with minidom

This example shows how to modify an XML document using minidom.

main.py

from xml.dom import minidom

XML data

xml_data = """ <products> <product> <id>1</id> <name>Product 1</name> <price>10.99</price> <quantity>30</quantity> </product> </products> """

Parse the XML data

doc = minidom.parseString(xml_data)

Modify the first product’s price

product = doc.getElementsByTagName(‘product’)[0] price = product.getElementsByTagName(‘price’)[0] price.firstChild.data = ‘15.99’

Add a new product

new_product = doc.createElement(‘product’) doc.documentElement.appendChild(new_product) for tag, text in [(‘id’, ‘2’), (’name’, ‘Product 2’), (‘price’, ‘30.99’), (‘quantity’, ‘200’)]: elem = doc.createElement(tag) elem.appendChild(doc.createTextNode(text)) new_product.appendChild(elem)

Print the modified XML

print(doc.toprettyxml(indent=" “))

We modify the price by updating firstChild.data. A new product is created with createElement and text nodes are added using createTextNode.

Reading XML File with id Attribute

This example reads an XML file with id attributes using minidom.

products.xml

<products> <product id=“1”> <name>Product 1</name> <price>10.99</price> <quantity>30</quantity> </product> <product id=“2”> <name>Product 2</name> <price>20.99</price> <quantity>130</quantity> </product> </products>

Products have id as attributes.

main.py

from xml.dom import minidom

file_name = ‘products.xml’

Parse the XML file

doc = minidom.parse(file_name) products = doc.getElementsByTagName(‘product’)

Iterate over product elements

for product in products: product_id = product.getAttribute(‘id’) name = product.getElementsByTagName(’name’)[0].firstChild.data price = product.getElementsByTagName(‘price’)[0].firstChild.data qty = product.getElementsByTagName(‘quantity’)[0].firstChild.data print(f"Id: {product_id}, Name: {name}, Price: {price}, Quantity: {qty}”)

We use getAttribute to extract the id attribute and firstChild.data for element text.

$ python main.py Id: 1, Name: Product 1, Price: 10.99, Quantity: 30 Id: 2, Name: Product 2, Price: 20.99, Quantity: 130

Writing XML with minidom

This example creates and writes an XML document using minidom.

main.py

from xml.dom import minidom

Create the document

doc = minidom.Document()

Create the root element

root = doc.createElement(‘products’) doc.appendChild(root)

Create product elements

for i, (name, price, qty) in enumerate([ (‘Product 1’, ‘10.99’, ‘30’), (‘Product 2’, ‘20.99’, ‘130’) ], 1): product = doc.createElement(‘product’) root.appendChild(product) for tag, text in [(‘id’, str(i)), (’name’, name), (‘price’, price), (‘quantity’, qty)]: elem = doc.createElement(tag) elem.appendChild(doc.createTextNode(text)) product.appendChild(elem)

Write to file with pretty printing

with open(‘products2.xml’, ‘w’, encoding=‘utf-8’) as f: f.write(doc.toprettyxml(indent=" “))

print(“XML file created successfully with proper indentation.”)

We build the XML structure with createElement and createTextNode, then write it using toprettyxml.

Source

Python minidom - Documentation

This article demonstrated using the minidom module in Python for XML parsing, modification, and creation.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar, a passionate programmer with years of experience. I’ve been writing programming articles since 2007, with over 1400 articles and 8 e-books to date.

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