Element Tree Syntax Error (not well-formed with invalid token)

Question

I am trying to use the Element Tree modules but I end up to some Error which I can't understand.

My code here is based on the Python documentation itself, Python Element Tree doc ,somehow it gave me an error when trying to run the script;

try: import xml.etree.cElementTree as ET except ImportError: import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET file_name_xml = "curl-result.xml" tree = ET.parse(file_name_xml) tree.getroot()

When I run this code:

./python2.6 modify_xml_file.py

Then, it gave me this error;

Traceback (most recent call last): File "modify_xml_file.py", line 8, in <module> tree = ET.parse(file_name_xml) File "<string>", line 45, in parse File "<string>", line 32, in parse SyntaxError: not well-formed (invalid token): line 1, column 4

Martijn Pieters · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-11 06:48:53Z

The version of cElementTree included in Python 2.6 throws a SyntaxError exception for malformed XML:

>>> with open('bad.xml', 'w') as badxml: ... badxml = '<foobar\n' ... >>> import xml.etree.cElementTree as ET >>> tree = ET.parse('bad.xml') Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "<string>", line 45, in parse File "<string>", line 32, in parse SyntaxError: no element found: line 1, column 0

This is a bug in the C acceleration code fixed in Python 2.7. The (slower) Python parser throws a more helpful error:

>>> import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET >>> tree = ET.parse('bad.xml') Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "/Users/mjpieters/Development/Library/buildout.python/parts/opt/lib/python2.6/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 862, in parse tree.parse(source, parser) File "/Users/mjpieters/Development/Library/buildout.python/parts/opt/lib/python2.6/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 587, in parse self._root = parser.close() File "/Users/mjpieters/Development/Library/buildout.python/parts/opt/lib/python2.6/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 1254, in close self._parser.Parse("", 1) # end of data xml.parsers.expat.ExpatError: no element found: line 1, column 0

Fix your XML input file.

What changed in 2.7 is that ElementTree was updated to version 1.3, a version that improved the parser, introducing a new ParseError exception, which is a subclass of SyntaxError.

After removing additional data of the curl result on the top of my xml, I managed to run the code. Thank you, but of course, I was very sure the code is not malformed before because I tried to read it online using xmlgrid.net . Anyway, thank you. I don't know why this question should get downvoted though. I tried to ask a question which I have done some research before, maybe my fault for asking inappropriate question. Thank you again. :)
@yunaranyancat: try to make your question as complete as possible; including your XML (and how you produced it) would have made it much easier for people to answer, because we can then verify the issue. This is called a minimal reproducible example. Creating a proper MCVE (where you test the steps to see if the problem is indeed still there) can often already lead to a solution.
@yunaranyancat: I'm not saying that that is why it was downvoted (we can't read the minds, yet, unfortunately), but that could be a reason.
It's okay, at least you gave me the good ideas so I can relate and improve with my way of asking questions..

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