Python: lxml returns empty list from svg with xpath

Question

I want to access the tspan-tags from the following svg. For that I read that I should use lxml and xpath, normally element.xpath("tspan") should return a list with all tspan-tags, or? But I only get [].

Python code:

from lxml import etree

folder_input = "input"
folder_output = "output"

# generate ready to use vue components
def generate():
    svgFile  = open(folder_input + "/secondfloor.svg", "r")
    element = etree.parse(svgFile)
    print(element)

    tspans = element.xpath("tspan")

    print(tspans)

    for tspan in tspans:
        print(tspan.text)

    print("END")

SVG file:

Josh Voigts · Accepted Answer

You have to add a namespace prefix for svg. Also, your xpath should start with // if you are trying to select from anywhere in the document. As a side note, you should close the file when finished parsing.

from lxml import etree

folder_input = "input"
folder_output = "output"

# generate ready to use vue components
def generate():
    svgFile  = open(folder_input + "/secondfloor.svg", "r")
    element = etree.parse(svgFile)
    svgFile.close()

    print(element)

    ns = {'s': 'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'}

    tspans = element.xpath("//s:tspan", namespaces=ns)

    print(tspans)

    for tspan in tspans:
        print(tspan.text)

    print("END")

Python: lxml returns empty list from svg with xpath

Answers (1)

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