Python to parse non-standard XML file

Question

My input file is actually multiple XML files appending to one file. (It\'s from Google Patents). It has below structure:

Answer 1

Here's my take on it, using a generator and lxml.etree. Extracted information purely for example.

import urllib2, os, zipfile
from lxml import etree

def xmlSplitter(data,separator=lambda x: x.startswith(' 10: break
  doc = etree.XML(item)
  docID = "-".join(doc.xpath('//publication-reference/document-id/*/text()'))
  title = first(doc.xpath('//invention-title/text()'))
  assignee = first(doc.xpath('//assignee/addressbook/orgname/text()'))
  print "DocID:    {0}\nTitle:    {1}\nAssignee: {2}\n".format(docID,title,assignee)

Yields:

DocID:    US-D0629996-S1-20110104
Title:    Glove backhand
Assignee: Blackhawk Industries Product Group Unlimited LLC

DocID:    US-D0629997-S1-20110104
Title:    Belt sleeve
Assignee: None

DocID:    US-D0629998-S1-20110104
Title:    Underwear
Assignee: X-Technology Swiss GmbH

DocID:    US-D0629999-S1-20110104
Title:    Portion of compression shorts
Assignee: Nike, Inc.

DocID:    US-D0630000-S1-20110104
Title:    Apparel
Assignee: None

DocID:    US-D0630001-S1-20110104
Title:    Hooded shirt
Assignee: None

DocID:    US-D0630002-S1-20110104
Title:    Hooded shirt
Assignee: None

DocID:    US-D0630003-S1-20110104
Title:    Hooded shirt
Assignee: None

DocID:    US-D0630004-S1-20110104
Title:    Headwear cap
Assignee: None

DocID:    US-D0630005-S1-20110104
Title:    Footwear
Assignee: Vibram S.p.A.