Difference between ElementTree and Minidom

Question

What is the difference between the ElementTree and Minidom modules?..Do they parse XML in the same manner?

Answer 1

Python allows parsing these XML documents using two modules namely, the xml.etree.ElementTree module and Minidom (Minimal DOM Implementation). Parsing means to read information from a file and split it into pieces by identifying parts of that particular XML file.

xml.etree.ElementTree Module:

This module helps us format XML data in a tree structure which is the most natural representation of hierarchical data. 

EXAMPLE:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

mytree = ET.parse('sample.xml')

myroot = mytree.getroot()

print(myroot)

OUTPUT:  <Element ‘metadata’ at 0x033589F0>

xml.dom.minidom Module:

This module is basically used by people who are proficient with DOM (Document Object module). DOM applications often start by parsing XML into DOM.

EXAMPLE:

from xml.dom import minidom

dat=minidom.parse('sample.xml')

print(dat)

OUTPUT: <xml.dom.minidom.Document object at 0x03B5A308>

If you can notice the difference between the outputs, mindom creates an DOM object whereas ElementeTree creates elements.