Change int element to str element in lxml objectify python

Question

Hope someone can help.

I am using lxml objectify to parse xml, which is returned from a third party integration using objectify.fromstring(). I have one element in my xml which sometimes consists of ints 0-9 only, when it is ints only the leading zero(s) are removed. As there is no set number of how many digits will be returned and the fact sometimes it may have 2 letters before the number, padding the value with zeros wouldn't suffice.

Is there a way I could specify lxml objectify to force the type to a string before doing objectify.fromstring() so it retains the value as received in the xml?

I have had a look at the lxml website but can't seem to find what I am looking for.

Many Thanks

Have you tried making a schema? It would force data types (and, additionally, protect you from potentially harmful, unanticipated inputs) http://lxml.de/objectify.html#asserting-a-schema — Tomalak, Mar 11 '16 at 15:14
I have not tried that actually. Thanks I will give it a go. Thanks for the link too, I was reading docs for a older version of lxml objectify and that didn't have the schema section. — Billy, Mar 11 '16 at 15:52

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:24

1

You might also be experiencing this kind of behavior:

>>> from lxml import objectify
>>> 
>>> xml = "<a><b>01</b></a>"
>>> a = objectify.fromstring(xml)
>>> print(a.b)
1
>>> print(a.b.text)
01

As you can see, if you get .text property you would get the text of the node as is.

FYI, created a follow-up topic: lxml.objectify and leading zeros.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:24

Community

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answered Mar 12 '16 at 16:10

alecxe

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I will try that, Thank you very much – Billy Mar 15 '16 at 09:07
@Billy there is also an explanation and the possible workaround in the linked thread, check it out. – alecxe Mar 15 '16 at 14:35
Thanks will check that out also – Billy Mar 16 '16 at 10:51

Change int element to str element in lxml objectify python

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