How can I check attribute existings by Elementtree?

Question

I need to check certain attributes for existence. Like:

if "blah-blah-blah" is None:
    print "there is no such attribute"
else:
    print "The attribute exists"

Baillargeon

Okay "blah-blah-blah" makes no sense... The syntax isn't even Python and I can't see any relation to Elementtree - please clarify this – Anastice

@Jon Why is the syntax not Python? Except for "blah-blah-blah" which is not a valid name. Edit: right, the missing colon after else... – Engaged

Do you have to verify if there is certain attribute in some specific element, or whether the attribute is set in any element? Could you post an example of what you are trying to do? An example of the input XML doc? Also, an example of the expected output? – Emphasis

And not sure I should bother mentioning, whatever == None, should be written whatever is None – Anastice

Answer 1

Element objects have all the attributes in the attrib dict.

if 'blah' not in elem.attrib:
   print "there is no such attribute"

Engaged

Where can i set the tag? What is 'blah'? blah == attrib? – Baillargeon

@Baillargeon I gave the best answer I was able to given how you stated the question. How to set the tag is a different question, and the answer will depend on what you need to do with the XML document. I suggest reading the documentation I link to and also a short guide on how to ask. – Engaged