[lxml-dev] How to set an attribute with a xml-namepace

[Stefan Behnel]

Grimm, Markus wrote:
> I want to set a new element with an attribute using the xml-namespace,
> f.e.
>
>  >>   xml = "<root xml:space=\"preserve\"/>"
>  >>   root = etree.fromstring(xml)
>  >>   print etree.tostring(root)
>  <root xml:space="preserve"/>
>
> everything fine, and now...
>
>>> root = etree.Element("root", space="preserve")
>>> print etree.tostring(root)
> <root space="preserve"/>
>
> How can I bind the space-attribute to the xml-namespace, so I can output
> the same result as above ?

The namespace that is bound to the "xml" prefix is

    http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace

You use it like this:

    >>> root = etree.Element("root",
    ...    {'{http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace}space' : "preserve"})
    >>> print etree.tostring(root)
    <root space="preserve"/>

Note that you have to pass a dictionary here as you cannot pass the name
as a keyword argument. Or use the .set() Element method.

Also see the section on namespaces in the tutorial.

Stefan