Path: csiph.com!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!news.stack.nl!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed4.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!post.news.xs4all.nl!not-for-mail Return-Path: X-Original-To: python-list@python.org Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org X-Spam-Status: OK 0.000 X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 1.00; '*S*': 0.00; 'broken': 0.03; '"""': 0.05; 'preferably': 0.05; 'column': 0.07; 'python': 0.09; '""")': 0.09; 'received:80.91': 0.09; 'received:80.91.229': 0.09; 'received:gmane.org': 0.09; 'received:list': 0.09; 'subject:trying': 0.09; 'subject:using': 0.09; '<>.': 0.11; 'library': 0.15; 'properly': 0.15; 'framework,': 0.16; 'received:80.91.229.3': 0.16; 'received:dip.t-dialin.net': 0.16; 'received:plane.gmane.org': 0.16; 'received:t-dialin.net': 0.16; 'tweak': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.17; 'trying': 0.21; 'import': 0.21; 'work.': 0.23; 'header:User-Agent:1': 0.26; 'question': 0.27; 'tree': 0.27; "doesn't": 0.28; 'header:X-Complaints-To:1': 0.28; 'dom': 0.29; 'implies': 0.29; 'included': 0.29; "i'm": 0.29; 'structure': 0.32; 'html,': 0.33; 'problem': 0.33; 'to:addr :python-list': 0.33; 'similar': 0.35; 'received:org': 0.36; 'really': 0.36; 'closing': 0.36; 'loaded': 0.36; 'possible': 0.37; 'xml': 0.37; 'subject:: ': 0.38; 'some': 0.38; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.39; 'header:Received:5': 0.40; 'easy': 0.60; 'real': 0.61; 'below.': 0.68; 'tags,': 0.81 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: python-list@python.org From: Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> Subject: Re: Noob trying to parse bad HTML using xml.etree.ElementTree Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2012 11:18:24 +0100 Organization: None References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: p5084a7b2.dip.t-dialin.net User-Agent: KNode/4.7.3 X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.15 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Message-ID: Lines: 38 NNTP-Posting-Host: 2001:888:2000:d::a6 X-Trace: 1356862716 news.xs4all.nl 6891 [2001:888:2000:d::a6]:58493 X-Complaints-To: abuse@xs4all.nl Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:35800 Morten Guldager wrote: > 'Aloha Friends! > > I'm trying to process some HTML using xml.etree.ElementTree > Problem is that the HTML I'm trying to read have some not properly closed > tags, as the shown in line 8 below. > > 1 from xml.etree import ElementTree > 2 > 3 tree = ElementTree > 4 e = tree.fromstring( > 5 """ > 6 > 7 > 8

> 9 > 10 > 11 """) > > Python whines: xml.etree.ElementTree.ParseError: mismatched tag: line 5, > column 14 > > I definitely do want to work DOM style, having the whole shebang loaded > into a nice structure before I start the real work. > > Question is if it's possible to tweak xml.etree.ElementTree to accept, and > understand sloppy html, or if you have suggestions for similar easy to use > framework, preferably among the included batteries? The tag doesn't have a closing counterpart in HTML. That implies that valid HTML isn't valid XML and that you cannot use xml.etree with HTML. While it is not in the standard library a good alternative for XML that can deal with HTML, too, is lxml. See . It also provides a way to cope with really broken html, modeled after BeautifulSoup.