CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythontypeerrorelementtree
Stevoisiak
Stevoisiak

Reputation: 26762

Converting xml.etree.ElementTree to string raises "TypeError: argument of type 'int' is not iterable"

I have a simple XML element created with xml.etree.ElementTree in Python 3.

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ElementTree
person = ElementTree.Element("Person", Name="John", Age=18)

I can use Element.get() to access individual attributes from my element without any issues.

name = person.get("Name")
age = person.get("Age")
print(name + " is " + str(age) + " years old.")
# output: "John is 18 years old"

However, if I try to convert my element to a string with .tostring(), I get an error "TypeError: argument of type 'int' is not iterable".

print(ElementTree.tostring(person))  # TypeError

Why can't I use .tostring() on an xml.etree.ElementTree.Element with an integer attribute?

Full code:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ElementTree

person = ElementTree.Element("Person", Name="John", Age=18)
print(ElementTree.tostring(person))  # TypeError

Full traceback:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\svascellar\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 1079, in _escape_attrib
    if "&" in text:
TypeError: argument of type 'int' is not iterable

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:/Users/svascellar/.PyCharmCE2017.3/config/scratches/scratch_13.py", line 3, in <module>
    print(ElementTree.tostring(person))
  File "C:\Users\svascellar\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 1135, in tostring
    short_empty_elements=short_empty_elements)
  File "C:\Users\svascellar\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 776, in write
    short_empty_elements=short_empty_elements)
  File "C:\Users\svascellar\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 933, in _serialize_xml
    v = _escape_attrib(v)
  File "C:\Users\svascellar\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 1102, in _escape_attrib
    _raise_serialization_error(text)
  File "C:\Users\svascellar\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 1057, in _raise_serialization_error
    "cannot serialize %r (type %s)" % (text, type(text).__name__)
TypeError: cannot serialize 18 (type int)

Upvotes: 3

Views: 8374

Answers (1)

John Gordon
John Gordon

Reputation: 33335

Even though Age is intended to be a numeric value, xml attribute values should be quoted strings:

person = ElementTree.Element("Person", Name="John", Age="18")

Alternatively, if the data was stored as a variable, convert it to a string with str()

age = 18
person = ElementTree.Element("Person", Name="John", Age=str(age))

Upvotes: 8

Related Questions