How to wrap anything inside an Element with another Element using lxml in Python?

user_6570794 0
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Let's examine this example:

tree_string = '''
<root>
<must_wrap_anything_inside_this_element> asjkdnasd cass'a s' alsdnjl al <g/> 
    'asdasjkdhaisbd'assdaewken jka <x id='3'/> kfa;sdf lasd;f naisb fiuabewf <some_random_tag> random stuff </some_random_tag>
    yet more text here
</must_wrap_anything_inside_this_element>
</root>
'''

tree = lxml.etree.fromstring(tree_string)

How can I wrap anything (yes anything - text or other elements) inside the must_wrap_anything_inside_this_element element with another element (like wrapper, below) resulting in:

result = '''
<root>
<must_wrap_anything_inside_this_element>
    <wrapper>
    asjkdnasd cass'a s' alsdnjl al <g/> 
    'asdasjkdhaisbd'assdaewken jka <x id='3'/> kfa;sdf lasd;f naisb fiuabewf <some_random_tag> random stuff </some_random_tag>
    yet more text here
    </wrapper>
</must_wrap_anything_inside_this_element>
</root>
'''

I am using Python's lxml library. Thanks.

lxml xml python
1 Answers

Well, this requires some gymnastics, but is doable....

#locate your target element
target = tree.xpath('//must_wrap_anything_inside_this_element')[0]
#change its tag name....
target.tag="wrapper"
#now create a new element with old, top tag name
tree.insert(0,etree.fromstring('<must_wrap_anything_inside_this_element/>'))
#use the new element as the destination for the old element
destination=tree.xpath('//must_wrap_anything_inside_this_element')[0]
#finally, move the old element to its final resting place...
destination.insert(0,target)
print(etree.tostring(tree).decode())

Output is your desired output.

user_94480900
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