13.6 xml.sax -- Support for SAX2 parsers

New in version 2.0.

The xml.sax package provides a number of modules which implement the Simple API for XML (SAX) interface for Python. The package itself provides the SAX exceptions and the convenience functions which will be most used by users of the SAX API.

The convenience functions are:

make_parser ([parser_list])
Create and return a SAX XMLReader object. The first parser found will be used. If parser_list is provided, it must be a sequence of strings which name modules that have a function named create_parser(). Modules listed in parser_list will be used before modules in the default list of parsers.

parse (filename_or_stream, handler[, error_handler])
Create a SAX parser and use it to parse a document. The document, passed in as filename_or_stream, can be a filename or a file object. The handler parameter needs to be a SAX ContentHandler instance. If error_handler is given, it must be a SAX ErrorHandler instance; if omitted, SAXParseException will be raised on all errors. There is no return value; all work must be done by the handler passed in.

parseString (string, handler[, error_handler])
Similar to parse(), but parses from a buffer string received as a parameter.

The SAX exceptions are also provided here:

SAXException (msg[, exception])
Encapsulate an XML error or warning. This class can contain basic error or warning information from either the XML parser or the application: it can be subclassed to provide additional functionality or to add localization. Note that although the handlers defined in the ErrorHandler interface receive instances of this exception, it is not required to actually raise the exception -- it is also useful as a container for information.

When instantiated, msg should be a human-readable description of the error. The optional exception parameter, if given, should be None or an exception that was caught by the parsing code and is being passed along as information.

This is the base class for the other SAX exception classes.

SAXParseException (msg, exception, locator)
Subclass of SAXException raised on parse errors. Instances of this class are passed to the methods of the SAX ErrorHandler interface to provide information about the parse error. This class supports the SAX Locator interface as well as the SAXException interface.

SAXNotRecognizedException (msg[, exception])
Subclass of SAXException raised when a SAX XMLReader is confronted with an unrecognized feature or property. SAX applications and extensions may use this class for similar purposes.

SAXNotSupportedException (msg[, exception])
Subclass of SAXException raised when a SAX XMLReader is asked to enable a feature that is not supported, or to set a property to a value that the implementation does not support. SAX applications and extensions may use this class for similar purposes.

See Also:

SAX: The Simple API for XML
This site is the focal point for the definition of the SAX API. It provides a Java implementation and online documentation. Links to implementations and historical information are also available.


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