How to keep xml namespace without prefix, while generating XML using lxml?

Question

I am trying to create simple SVG (XML) file as follows:

root = etree.Element('{http://www.w3.org/2000/svg}svg')
root.append(element) # element is a <path> element extracted from another SVG file
print(etree.tostring(root).decode())

But this gives the output as follows:

<ns0:svg xmlns:ns0="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><ns0:path ...></ns0:path></ns0:svg>

This output is almost correct, but how do I get rid of the ns0: namespace it seems to have added randomly? The expected output is:

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path ...></path></svg>

I've tried using nsmap as follows, but this raises ValueError: Invalid namespace prefix '':

root = etree.Element('{http://www.w3.org/2000/svg}svg', nsmap={'': 'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'})
# ...

This answer comes close, but it removes the namespace prefix and the namespace, which I don't really want – I want to remove the namespace prefix, but preserve the namespace (as it wouldn't be a valid SVG without the namespace).

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 16 '21 at 09:26

You're close. In nsmap=, instead of '', use None:

root = etree.Element('{http://www.w3.org/2000/svg}svg', nsmap={None: 'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'})
root.append(element) # element is a <path> element extracted from another SVG file
print(etree.tostring(root).decode())

This will preserve the namespace, but not add any namespace prefix (i.e. ns0).

How to keep xml namespace without prefix, while generating XML using lxml?

1 Answers1