Convert XML to CSV in Python

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is widely used to store and transport structured data. However, for tasks like data analysis or spreadsheet editing, CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is far more user-friendly and easier to work with.

To make XML data easier to process, we often convert it to a CSV file. In this article, we will explore how to convert XML to CSV step-by-step with the help of the built-in xml.etree.ElementTree module and the powerful pandas library.

Approach

• Import necessary libraries.
• Define the desired column headers.
• Parse the XML file.
• Extract the relevant data.
• Store it into a pandas DataFrame.
• Export the DataFrame to a CSV file.

To download the XML data used in the examples, click here.

Example

Python Program to Convert XML to CSV.

Output:

Code Breakdown:

• We used ElementTree to parse and navigate through the XML structure.
• Data from each record was collected into a list of dictionaries.
• Finally, we used pandas to create a CSV file from that structured data.

To learn about the pandas module in depth, refer to: Python Pandas Tutorial