How to create xml from R objects, e.g., is there a 'listToXml' function?

Question

R\'s XML package has an xmlToList function, but does not have the reverse, is there a function for R that will convert a list to an XML object?

I would like somethin

Answer 1

Here is the listToXML function that we ended up creating

At first I adapted the answer by @Jeff

listToXml <- function(item, tag){
  if(typeof(item)!='list')
    return(xmlNode(tag, item))
  xml <- xmlNode(tag)
  for(name in names(item)){
    xml <- append.xmlNode(xml, listToXml(item[[name]], name))
  }
  return(xml)
}

But since the function has benefited from further development:

##' Convert List to XML
##'
##' Can convert list or other object to an xml object using xmlNode
##' @title List to XML
##' @param item 
##' @param tag xml tag
##' @return xmlNode
##' @export
##' @author David LeBauer, Carl Davidson, Rob Kooper
listToXml <- function(item, tag) {
  # just a textnode, or empty node with attributes
  if(typeof(item) != 'list') {
    if (length(item) > 1) {
      xml <- xmlNode(tag)
      for (name in names(item)) {
        xmlAttrs(xml)[[name]] <- item[[name]]
      }
      return(xml)
    } else {
      return(xmlNode(tag, item))
    }
  }

  # create the node
  if (identical(names(item), c("text", ".attrs"))) {
    # special case a node with text and attributes
    xml <- xmlNode(tag, item[['text']])
  } else {
    # node with child nodes
    xml <- xmlNode(tag)
    for(i in 1:length(item)) {
      if (names(item)[i] != ".attrs") {
        xml <- append.xmlNode(xml, listToXml(item[[i]], names(item)[i]))
      }
    }    
  }

  # add attributes to node
  attrs <- item[['.attrs']]
  for (name in names(attrs)) {
    xmlAttrs(xml)[[name]] <- attrs[[name]]
  }
  return(xml)
}

Answer 2

needed to make some changes to the function for cases where there are multiple elements (i.e. lists with no name entry):

##' Convert List to XML
##'
##' Can convert list or other object to an xml object using xmlNode
##' @title List to XML
##' @param item 
##' @param tag xml tag
##' @return xmlNode
##' @export
##' @author David LeBauer, Carl Davidson, Rob Kooper, julien colomb
listToXml <- function(item, tag) {
  # just a textnode, or empty node with attributes
  if(typeof(item) != 'list') {
    if (length(item) > 1) {
      xml <- xmlNode(tag)
      for (name in names(item)) {
        xmlAttrs(xml)[[name]] <- item[[name]]
      }
      return(xml)
    } else {
      return(xmlNode(tag, item))
    }
  }

  # create the node
  if (identical(names(item), c("text", ".attrs"))) {
    # special case a node with text and attributes
    xml <- xmlNode(tag, item[['text']])
  } else {
    # node with child nodes
    xml <- xmlNode(tag)
    for(i in 1:length(item)) {
      if (length (item[[i]]) == 0) {}
      else if (names(item)[i] != ".attrs") {
        print(i)
        if (is.null (names(item[[i]][1])) ){
          print(i)
          for (j in c(1:length (item[[i]]))){
            child <- xmlNode(names(item)[i])
            xmlValue(child) <- item[[i]][j]
            xml <- append.xmlNode(xml,child)
          }
        } else {
          xml <- append.xmlNode(xml, listToXml(item[[i]], names(item)[i]))
        }

      }
    }    
  }

  # add attributes to node
  attrs <- item[['.attrs']]
  for (name in names(attrs)) {
    xmlAttrs(xml)[[name]] <- attrs[[name]]
  }
  return(xml)
}

Answer 3

I am surprised that no function already exists for this -- surely there's something already packaged out there.

Regardless, I use the following script to accomplish this:

root <- newXMLNode("root")
li <- list(a = list(aa = 1, ab=2), b=list(ba = 1, bb= 2, bc =3))
listToXML <- function(node, sublist){
    for(i in 1:length(sublist)){
        child <- newXMLNode(names(sublist)[i], parent=node);

        if (typeof(sublist[[i]]) == "list"){
            listToXML(child, sublist[[i]])
        }
        else{
            xmlValue(child) <- sublist[[i]]
        }
    } 
}
listToXML(root, li)

You can use the XML::saveXML() function to grab this as a character, if you prefer.

Answer 4

The function newXMLNode does what you need, i.e., write XML output. See the detailed help and examples in ?newXMLNode for more details. Here is a short extract:

library(XML)    
top = newXMLNode("a")
newXMLNode("b", attrs=c(x=1, y='abc'), parent=top)
newXMLNode("c", "With some text", parent=top)
top

Resulting in:

<a>
  <b x="1" y="abc"/>
  <c>With some text</c>
</a>