Gabriel said:
the idea would be as follows:
- For each span generate two tuples: (start_offset, 1, end_offset,
element) and (end_offset, 0, -start_offset, element). If start==end use
(start_offset, -1, start_offset, element).
- Collect all tuples in a list, and sort them. The tuple is made so when
at a given offset there is an element that ends and another that starts,
the ending element comes first (because it has a 0). For all the
elements that end at a given point, the shortest comes first.
- Initialize an empty list (will be used as a stack of containers), and
create a root Element as your "current container" (CC), the variable
"last_used" will keep the last position used on the text.
- For each tuple in the sorted list:
- if the second item is a 1, an element is starting. Insert it into
the CC element, push the CC onto the stack, and set the new element as
the new CC. The element data is text[last_used:start_offset], and move
last_used to start_offset.
- if the second item is a 0, an element is ending. Discard the CC, pop
an element from the stack as the new CC. The element data is
text[last_used:end_offset], move last_used up to end_offset.
- if the second item is a -1, it's an element with no content. Insert
it into the CC element.
Thanks a lot! This put me on the right track (though the devil's
definitely in the details). It's working now::
>>> tree = xmltools.text_and_spans_to_etree('aaa aaa aaaccc cccaaa', [
.... (etree.Element('a'), 0, 21),
.... (etree.Element('b'), 11, 11),
.... (etree.Element('c'), 11, 18),
.... ])
' said:
>>> tree = xmltools.text_and_spans_to_etree('bbb\naaaccc\ncccaaa', [
.... (etree.Element('a'), 0, 17),
.... (etree.Element('b'), 0, 4),
.... (etree.Element('c'), 7, 14),
.... (etree.Element('b'), 14, 14),
.... ])
' said:
>>> tree = xmltools.text_and_spans_to_etree('abc', [
.... (etree.Element('a'), 0, 3),
.... (etree.Element('b'), 0, 3),
.... (etree.Element('c'), 0, 3),
.... ])'<a><b><c>abc</c></b></a>'
And for the sake of any poor soul who runs into a similar problem,
here's the code I wrote using Gabriel's hints above::
def text_and_spans_to_etree(text, spans):
# Create a list of element starts and ends, sorting them in the
# order they would appear in an XML version of the text. So for
# example, with XML text like:
# <a> a <b> b </b> a </a>
# we will see:
# starting <a>
# starting <b>
# ending </b>
# ending </a>
empty = -1
starting = 0
ending = 1
tuples = []
root_elem = None
for i, (elem, start, end) in enumerate(spans):
# validate spans
if start < 0 or end > len(text):
msg = 'spans must be in the range 0-%i'
raise ValueError(msg % len(text))
# save the first element that spans the entire text as the root
elif root_elem is None and start == 0 and end == len(text):
root_elem = elem
# insert a single tuple for empty elements
elif start == end:
tuples.append((start, empty, -end, i, elem))
# insert starts and ends for all other elements
else:
tuples.append((start, starting, -end, i, elem))
tuples.append((start, ending, -end, -i, elem))
tuples.sort()
# make sure we found a root element
if root_elem is None:
raise ValueError('one element must span the entire text')
# iterate through the element starts and ends,
# updating element texts, tails and children
last_offset = 0
last_elem = root_elem
last_type = starting
stack = [root_elem]
for start, offset_type, neg_end, _, elem in tuples:
# start of an element:
# add it as a child and add it to the stack
# next text chunk goes up to the start offset
if offset_type is starting:
stack[-1].append(elem)
stack.append(elem)
offset = start
# end of an element:
# pop if off the stack
# next text chunk goes up to the end offset
elif offset_type is ending:
if elem is not stack[-1]:
print elem, stack[-1]
assert False
assert elem is stack.pop()
offset = -neg_end
# empty element:
# add it as a child
# next text chunk goes up to the start offset
elif offset_type is empty:
stack[-1].append(elem)
offset = start
# should never get here
else:
assert False
# calculate the next text chunk, and then determine what to do
# with it based on what we did the last time around:
# * started an element -> set its .text
# * ended an element (or inserted an empty) -> set its .tail
last_text = text[last_offset
ffset]
if last_type is starting:
last_elem.text = last_text
elif last_type is ending:
last_elem.tail = last_text
elif last_type is empty:
last_elem.tail = last_text
else:
assert False
# save what we did this time for inspection next time
last_offset = offset
last_type = offset_type
last_elem = elem
# add any final text before the close of the root element
last_elem.tail = text[last_offset:]
return root_elem
Thanks again,
STeVe
