Reading a spreadsheet like .xml with ElementTree

Question

I am reading an xml file using ElementTree but there is a Cell in which I cannot read its data.

I adapted my file to make a reproducable example that I present next:

from xml.etree import ElementTree
import io

xmlf = """<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?mso-application progid="Excel.Sheet"?>
<Workbook ss:ResourcesPackageName="" ss:ResourcesPackageVersion="" xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"
 xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"
 xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
  <Worksheet ss:Name="DigitalOutput" ss:IsDeviceType="true">
     <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0">
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">A</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">B</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">C</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell>
    <Cell ss:Index="7"><ss:Data ss:Type="String"
      xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><Font html:Color="#000000">CAN'T READ </Font><Font>THIS</Font></ss:Data><NamedCell
      ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell>
    <Cell ss:Index="10"><Data ss:Type="String">D</Data><NamedCell
      ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell>
   </Row>
   </Worksheet>
 </Workbook>"""

ss = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"
worksheet_label = '{%s}Worksheet' % ss
row_label = '{%s}Row' % ss
cell_label = '{%s}Cell' % ss
data_label = '{%s}Data' % ss

tree = ElementTree.parse(io.StringIO(xmlf))
root = tree.getroot()

for ws in root.findall(worksheet_label):
    for table in ws.findall(row_label):
        for c in table.findall(cell_label):
            data = c.find(data_label)
            print(data.text)

The output is:

A
B
C
None
D

So, the fourth cell was not read. Can you help me on fixing this?

stovfl · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-09T16:39:24.297

Question: Reading a spreadsheet like .xml with ElementTree

Documentation: The lxml.etree Tutorial- Namespaces

Define the namespaces used

ns = {'ss':"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet",
      'html':"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"
     }

Use the namespaces with find(.../findall(...

tree = ElementTree.parse(io.StringIO(xmlf))
root = tree.getroot()

for ws in root.findall('ss:Worksheet', ns):
    for table in ws.findall('ss:Row', ns):
        for c in table.findall('ss:Cell', ns):
            data = c.find('ss:Data', ns)
            if data.text is None:
                text = []
                data = data.findall('html:Font', ns)
                for element in data:
                    text.append(element.text)

                data_text = ''.join(text)
                print(data_text)
            else:
                print(data.text)

Output:

A
B
C
CAN'T READ THIS
D

Tested with Python: 3.5

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 09 '19 at 13:58

The text content of the fourth cell belongs to the two Font subelements, which are bound to another namespace. Demo:

for e in root.iter():
    text = e.text.strip() if e.text else None 
    if text:
        print(e, text)

Output:

<Element {urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet}Data at 0x7f8013d01dc8> A
<Element {urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet}Data at 0x7f8013d01dc8> B
<Element {urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet}Data at 0x7f8013d01dc8> C
<Element {http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40}Font at 0x7f8013d01e08> CAN'T READ
<Element {http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40}Font at 0x7f8013d01e48> THIS
<Element {urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet}Data at 0x7f8013d01e48> D

Reading a spreadsheet like .xml with ElementTree

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