XML to Python Class

XML to Python class generation analyses an XML document and produces Python dataclass definitions that match its element and attribute structure. The generated classes give you a typed, IDE-friendly way to access XML data after parsing with ElementTree or lxml.

ElementTree (stdlib) is best for straightforward document parsing with no dependencies. lxml is faster, supports XPath fully, and handles large documents well — use it for production code. BeautifulSoup is designed for HTML scraping (lenient parser) and is a poor choice for strict XML. The generated dataclasses work as structural documentation for any parser.

ElementTree uses Clark notation for namespace-qualified tags: {http://namespace.uri}localname. Access elements with find("{ns}tagname") or pass a namespace dict to findall(). Use ElementTree.register_namespace() to output readable prefixes. The generated dataclasses strip namespaces — add them back in your parsing code.

element.attrib returns a dict of all attributes: element.attrib["id"] or element.get("id", default). In the generated dataclass, attributes become fields annotated with a comment. In your parsing code: obj.id = element.get("id") to hydrate the dataclass from the parsed element.

Yes: import xmltodict; data = xmltodict.parse(xml_string). The result is an OrderedDict mirroring the XML structure. Attributes are prefixed with @, text content uses #text. For simple scripts this is the fastest approach. For typed, maintainable code, generate dataclasses from the schema and parse explicitly.