Python 2.7.6: "No module named etree.ElementTree" when using pip install

Question

I somehow messed up my python and am running out of ideas how to fix it. I am using Python 2.7.6. on a Windows computer. Basically anything connected to xml stopped working. Meaning: it worked fine before, then the console crashed, and now I get the error described.

When I write

pip install numpy

in the console I get the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python27\Scripts\pip-script.py", line 9, in <module>
    load_entry_point('pip==1.5.2', 'console_scripts', 'pip')()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources.py", line 351, in load_entry
_point
    return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources.py", line 2363, in load_entr
y_point
    return ep.load()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources.py", line 2088, in load
    entry = __import__(self.module_name, globals(),globals(), ['__name__'])
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pip\__init__.py", line 11, in <module>
    from pip.vcs import git, mercurial, subversion, bazaar  # noqa
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pip\vcs\subversion.py", line 4, in <module
>
    from pip.index import Link
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pip\index.py", line 18, in <module>
    import html5lib
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\html5lib\__init__.py", line 16, in <module
>
    from .html5parser import HTMLParser, parse, parseFragment
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\html5lib\html5parser.py", line 6, in <modu
le>
    from . import inputstream
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\html5lib\inputstream.py", line 10, in <mod
ule>
    from . import utils
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\html5lib\utils.py", line 8, in <module>
    import xml.etree.ElementTree as default_etree
ImportError: No module named etree.ElementTree

What I did so far: I tried to reinstall the xml package (which was suggested in the forum). I also installed Anaconda with various environments. There, the problem is visible when I want to use packages like openpyxl, which gives me a similar error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "HU_calc.py", line 1, in <module>
    import openpyxl as px
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\__init__.py", line 29
, in <module>
    from openpyxl.workbook import Workbook
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\workbook\__init__.py"
, line 5, in <module>
    from .workbook import Workbook
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\workbook\workbook.py"
, line 7, in <module>
    from openpyxl.worksheet import Worksheet
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\worksheet\__init__.py
", line 4, in <module>
    from .worksheet import Worksheet
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\worksheet\worksheet.p
y", line 35, in <module>
    from openpyxl.cell import Cell
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\cell\__init__.py", li
ne 4, in <module>
    from .cell import Cell, WriteOnlyCell
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\cell\cell.py", line 4
5, in <module>
    from openpyxl.styles import numbers, is_date_format
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\styles\__init__.py",
line 5, in <module>
    from .alignment import Alignment
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\styles\alignment.py",
 line 6, in <module>
    from openpyxl.descriptors import Bool, MinMax, Min, Alias, NoneSet
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\descriptors\__init__.
py", line 5, in <module>
    from .sequence import Sequence
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\descriptors\sequence.
py", line 5, in <module>
    from openpyxl.xml.functions import Element
  File "D:\anaconda3\envs\py278\lib\site-packages\openpyxl\xml\functions.py", li
ne 28, in <module>
    from xml.etree.cElementTree import iterparse
ImportError: No module named etree.cElementTree

This is especially confusing to me, as I thought Anaconda would create a python environment completely isolated from the Windows one. I feel like I am missing something very obvious. If there's anything missing/unclear in my question, I'll fix that as soon as possible.

I'd be very grateful for every advice.

Answer 1

Looks like you have a python script named xml.py. Rename that and it should work.