Get string from tag using beautifulsoup

Question

I have this prettify html

         <a href="somepath">
          Text1
         </a>
         <span>
          |
         </span>
         <a href="somepath">
          Text2
         </a>
         <span>
          |
         </span>
         <a href="somepath">
          Text3
         </a>

I used this code:

cnta= len(res.findAll('a'))-1 //I used -1 because I have one extra a tag
cnt = 0
while cnt<cnta:
    res2 = res.find('a').text
    cnt+=1
    print res2

I want to take all 3 Texts but the result is 3 times "Text1"... I know that I not saying anyone to go to next but I don't know how to do it

Martijn Pieters · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-19T20:03:07.183

2

Just loop directly over the findAll results:

for elem in res.findAll('a'):
    print elem

The .find() method just returns the first element within res it finds, it doesn't continue the search from the last hit you found. So on each run through the loop it'll find the same element.

If you want to limit the number of results, use slice notation:

for elem in res.findAll('a')[:3]:
    print elem

edited Oct 19 '12 at 20:03

answered Oct 19 '12 at 19:57

Martijn Pieters

1,048,767
296
4,058
3,343

It works but I have one extra 'a' that is included too... Can i somehow skip the last 'a'? – a1204773 Oct 19 '12 at 20:01
1

Updated; `findAll` returns a list so you can slice it. – Martijn Pieters Oct 19 '12 at 20:03
Thank you... Sorry for noob question but I just today learn some basic python and didn't know how to slice list.. Thanks again.. – a1204773 Oct 19 '12 at 20:04
If you just want to ignore the last element, `res.findAll('a')[:-1]` will be simpler than figuring out the length and using a positive slice. – Andrew Clark Oct 19 '12 at 20:05
@Loclip: See [Good Primer for Python Slice Notation](http://stackoverflow.com/q/509211) for a good primer. – Martijn Pieters Oct 19 '12 at 20:06

Get string from tag using beautifulsoup

1 Answers1