Simple CSV to XML Conversion – Python

Question

I am looking for a way to automate the conversion of CSV to XML.

Here is an example of a CSV file, containing a list of movies:

Here is the file in XML format:

<collection shelf="New Arrivals">
<movietitle="Enemy Behind">
   <type>War, Thriller</type>
   <format>DVD</format>
   <year>2003</year>
   <rating>PG</rating>
   <stars>10</stars>
   <description>Talk about a US-Japan war</description>
</movie>
<movietitle="Transformers">
   <type>Anime, Science Fiction</type>
   <format>DVD</format>
   <year>1989</year>
   <rating>R</rating>
   <stars>8</stars>
   <description>A schientific fiction</description>
</movie>
<movietitle="Trigun">
   <type>Anime, Action</type>
   <format>DVD</format>
   <episodes>4</episodes>
   <rating>PG</rating>
   <stars>10</stars>
   <description>Vash the Stampede!</description>
</movie>
<movietitle="Ishtar">
   <type>Comedy</type>
   <format>VHS</format>
   <rating>PG</rating>
   <stars>2</stars>
   <description>Viewable boredom</description>
</movie>
</collection>

I’ve tried a few examples where I am able to read the csv and XML format using Python using DOM and SAX but yet am to find a simple example of the conversion. So far I have:

import csv              
f = open('movies2.csv')
csv_f = csv.reader(f)   

def convert_row(row):
   return """<movietitle="%s">
   <type>%s</type>
   <format>%s</format>
   <year>%s</year>
   <rating>%s</rating>
   <stars>%s</stars>
   <description>%s</description>
</movie>""" % (
   row.Title, row.Type, row.Format, row.Year, row.Rating, row.Stars, row.Description)

print ('n'.join(csv_f.apply(convert_row, axis=1)))

But I get the error:

 File "moviesxml.py", line 16, in module
   print ('n'.join(csv_f.apply(convert_row, axis=1)))
AttributeError: '_csv.reader' object has no attribute 'apply'

I am pretty new to Python, so any help would be much appreciated!

I am using Python 3.5.2.

Thanks!

Lisa

Asked By: L Marfell

||

Source

Answer 1

A possible solution is to first load the csv into Pandas and then convert it row by row into XML, as so:

import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv('untitled.txt', sep='|')

With the sample data (assuming separator and so on) loaded as:

          Title                   Type Format  Year Rating  Stars  
0  Enemy Behind           War,Thriller    DVD  2003     PG     10   
1  Transformers  Anime,Science Fiction    DVD  1989      R      9   

             Description  
0          Talk about...  
1  A Schientific fiction

And then converting to xml with a custom function:

def convert_row(row):
    return """<movietitle="%s">
    <type>%s</type>
    <format>%s</format>
    <year>%s</year>
    <rating>%s</rating>
    <stars>%s</stars>
    <description>%s</description>
</movie>""" % (
    row.Title, row.Type, row.Format, row.Year, row.Rating, row.Stars, row.Description)

print 'n'.join(df.apply(convert_row, axis=1))

This way you get a string containing the xml:

<movietitle="Enemy Behind">
    <type>War,Thriller</type>
    <format>DVD</format>
    <year>2003</year>
    <rating>PG</rating>
    <stars>10</stars>
    <description>Talk about...</description>
</movie>
<movietitle="Transformers">
    <type>Anime,Science Fiction</type>
    <format>DVD</format>
    <year>1989</year>
    <rating>R</rating>
    <stars>9</stars>
    <description>A Schientific fiction</description>
</movie>

that you can dump in to a file or whatever.

Inspired by this great answer.

Edit: Using the loading method you posted (or a version that actually loads the data to a variable):

import csv              
f = open('movies2.csv')
csv_f = csv.reader(f)   
data = []

for row in csv_f: 
   data.append(row)
f.close()

print data[1:]

We get:

[['Enemy Behind', 'War', 'Thriller', 'DVD', '2003', 'PG', '10', 'Talk about...'], ['Transformers', 'Anime', 'Science Fiction', 'DVD', '1989', 'R', '9', 'A Schientific fiction']]

And we can convert to XML with minor modifications:

def convert_row(row):
    return """<movietitle="%s">
    <type>%s</type>
    <format>%s</format>
    <year>%s</year>
    <rating>%s</rating>
    <stars>%s</stars>
    <description>%s</description>
</movie>""" % (row[0], row[1], row[2], row[3], row[4], row[5], row[6])

print 'n'.join([convert_row(row) for row in data[1:]])

Getting identical results:

<movietitle="Enemy Behind">
    <type>War</type>
    <format>Thriller</format>
    <year>DVD</year>
    <rating>2003</rating>
    <stars>PG</stars>
    <description>10</description>
</movie>
<movietitle="Transformers">
    <type>Anime</type>
    <format>Science Fiction</format>
    <year>DVD</year>
    <rating>1989</rating>
    <stars>R</stars>
    <description>9</description>
</movie>

Answered By: robertoia

Answer 2

I tried to generalize robertoia‘s function convert_row for any header instead of writing it by hand.

import csv  
import pandas as pd
            
f = open('movies2.csv')
csv_f = csv.reader(f)   
data = []

for row in csv_f: 
   data.append(row)
f.close()

df = pd.read_csv('movies2.csv')
header= list(df.columns)

def convert_row(row):
     str_row = """<%s>%s</%s> n"""*(len(header)-1)
     str_row = """<%s>%s""" +"n"+ str_row + """</%s>"""
     var_values = [list_of_elments[k] for k in range(1,len(header)) for list_of_elments in [header,row,header]]
     var_values = [header[0],row[0]]+var_values+[header[0]]
     var_values =tuple(var_values)
     return str_row % var_values

text ="""<collection shelf="New Arrivals">"""+"n"+'n'.join([convert_row(row) for row in data[1:]])+"n" +"</collection >"
print(text)
with open('output.xml', 'w') as myfile: 
  myfile.write(text)

Of course with pandas now, it is simpler to just use
to_xml() :

df= pd.read_csv('movies2.csv')
with open('outputf.xml', 'w') as myfile: 
  myfile.write(df.to_xml())

Answered By: Anass

Answer 3

I found an easier way to insert variables into a string or block of text:

'''Twas brillig and the slithy {what}
Did gyre and gimble in the {where}
All {how} were the borogoves
And the {who} outgrabe.'''.format(what='toves',
                                  where='wabe',
                                  how='mimsy',
                                  who='momeraths')

Alternatively:

'''Twas brillig and the slithy {0}
Did gyre and gimble in the {1}
All {2} were the borogoves
And the {3} outgrabe.'''.format('toves',
                                'wabe',
                                'mimsy',
                                'momeraths')

(substitute name of incoming data variable for 'toves', 'wabe', 'mimsy', and 'momeraths')

Answered By: Yvonne Aburrow

Simple CSV to XML Conversion – Python

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