lxml empty versus self closed tag

[Robin Becker]

I'm using lxml.etree.XMLParser and would like to distinguish

<tag></tag>

from

<tag/>

I seem to have e.getchildren()==[] and e.text==None for both cases. Is there a way to get the first to have e.text==''
--
Robin Becker

[Dieter Maurer]

I do not think so (at least not without a DTD):
`<tag/>' is just a shorthand notation for '<tag></tag>' and
the difference has no influence on the DOM.

Note that `lxml` is just a Python binding for `libxml2`.
All the parsing is done by this library.

[Robin Becker]

On 02/03/2022 18:39, Dieter Maurer wrote:
> Robin Becker wrote at 2022-3-2 15:32 +0000:
>> I'm using lxml.etree.XMLParser and would like to distinguish
>>
>> <tag></tag>
>>
>> from
>>
>> <tag/>
>>
>> I seem to have e.getchildren()==[] and e.text==None for both cases. Is there a way to get the first to have e.text==''
>
> I do not think so (at least not without a DTD):

I have a DTD which has

<!ELEMENT tag (content)*>

so I guess the empty case is allowed as well as the self closed.

I am converting from an older parser which has text=='' for <tag></tag> and text==None for the self closed version. I
don't think I really need to make the distinction. However, I wonder how lxml can present an empty string content
deliberately or if that always has to be a semantic decision.

> `<t

ag/>' is just a shorthand notation for '<tag></tag>' and
> the difference has no influence on the DOM.
>
> Note that `lxml` is just a Python binding for `libxml2`.
> All the parsing is done by this library.

yes I think I knew that

[Dieter Maurer]

Robin Becker wrote at 2022-3-3 09:21 +0000:
>On 02/03/2022 18:39, Dieter Maurer wrote:
>> Robin Becker wrote at 2022-3-2 15:32 +0000:
>>> I'm using lxml.etree.XMLParser and would like to distinguish
>>>
>>> <tag></tag>
>>>
>>> from
>>>
>>> <tag/>
>>>
>>> I seem to have e.getchildren()==[] and e.text==None for both cases. Is there a way to get the first to have e.text==''
>>
>> I do not think so (at least not without a DTD):
>
>I have a DTD which has
>
><!ELEMENT tag (content)*>
>
>so I guess the empty case is allowed as well as the self closed.

Potentially, something changes when `content` contains `PCDATA` (as
one possibility) (but I doubt it).