Remove whitespaces in XML string

Question

How can I remove the whitespaces and line breaks in an XML string in Python 2.6? I tried the following packages:

etree: This snippet keeps the original whitespaces:<

Answer 1

If whitespace in "non-leaf" nodes is what we're trying to remove then the following function will do it (recursively if specified):

from xml.dom import Node

def stripNode(node, recurse=False):
    nodesToRemove = []
    nodeToBeStripped = False

    for childNode in node.childNodes:
        # list empty text nodes (to remove if any should be)
        if (childNode.nodeType == Node.TEXT_NODE and childNode.nodeValue.strip() == ""):
            nodesToRemove.append(childNode)

        # only remove empty text nodes if not a leaf node (i.e. a child element exists)
        if childNode.nodeType == Node.ELEMENT_NODE:
            nodeToBeStripped = True

    # remove flagged text nodes
    if nodeToBeStripped:
        for childNode in nodesToRemove:
            node.removeChild(childNode)

    # recurse if specified
    if recurse:
        for childNode in node.childNodes:
            stripNode(childNode, True)

However, Thanatos is correct. Whitespace can represent data in XML so use with caution.