Mastering lxml in Python: Parse XML and HTML Like a Pro

Introduction

XML and HTML are everywhere—from APIs to scraped websites. In this post, I’ll show you how to use lxml, a powerful and fast Python library for parsing and manipulating XML/HTML.

Installation

pip install lxml

Parsing XML

from lxml import etree

xml_data=""'OneTwo'''
root = etree.fromstring(xml_data)

for item in root.findall('item'):
    print(item.text)

Parsing HTML

from lxml import html

html_content=""
tree = html.fromstring(html_content)

heading = tree.xpath('//h1/text()')
print(heading[0])  # Output: Hello

XPath Basics

Explain how XPath is used to select nodes:

links = tree.xpath('//a/@href')

Error Handling & Best Practices

• Use try/except
• Validate structure before parsing

Real-world Use Cases

• Scraping
• Working with config files
• Parsing API responses

Conclusion

lxml gives you superpowers for XML and HTML parsing. Whether you’re a beginner or advanced dev, it’s worth mastering!