On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 3:18 PM, Kenneth Gonsalves <law...@gmail.com> wrote:
> hi, > > here is a simplified version of an xml file: > > <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> > <gpx > > <metadata> > <author> > <name>CloudMade</name> > <email id="support" domain="cloudmade.com" /> > <link href="http://maps.cloudmade.com";></link> > </author> > <copyright author="CloudMade"> > <license>http://cloudmade.com/faq#license</license> > </copyright> > <time>2011-07-28T07:04:01</time> > </metadata> > <extensions> > <distance>1489</distance> > <time>344</time> > <start>Sägerstraße</start> > <end>Im Gisinger Feld</end> > </extensions> > </gpx> > > I want to get the value of the distance element - 1489. What is the > simplest way of doing this? > re.search("<distance>\s*(\d+)\s*</distance>",data).group(1) would appear to be the most succinct and quite fast. Adjust for whitespace as and if necessary. Yet I would probably use the minidom based approach, if I was sure the input was likely to be continue to be xml. Anand C's solution (elsewhere in the thread) reflects the programmers intent in a simpler, less obfuscated form (both correctly working solutions will communicate the intent with exactly the same precision - the precision required to make the program work). As far as optimisation goes - I can see at least 3 options a. the minidom performance is acceptable - no further optimisation required b. minidom performance is not acceptable - try the regex one c. python library performance is not acceptable - switch to 'c' I can imagine people starting with a and then deciding to move along the path a->b->c if and as necessary. I believe starting with b risks obfuscating code (imo regex is obfuscated compared to xml nodes - YMMV) I don't know of any python programmers who are speed-maniacs. I am worried anytime someone programs in something else than assembly/machine code and uses the latter word. The rest of us are just trading off development speed vs. runtime speed. Dhananjay _______________________________________________ BangPypers mailing list BangPypers@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/bangpypers
