python - xmltodict does not return a list for one element

Question

The following Code produces an error, if there is only one "car" in "garage":

import xmltodict

mydict = xmltodict.parse(xmlstringResults)    
for carsInGarage in mydict['garage']['car']:
    # do something...

The Reason is that mydict['garage']['car'] is only a list if there is more than one element of "car". So I did something like this:

import xmltodict

mydict = xmltodict.parse(xmlstringResults)
if isinstance(mydict['garage']['car'], list):
    for carsInGarage in mydict['garage']['car']:
        # do something for each car...
else:
    # do something for the car

to get the code to run. But for more advanced operations this is no solution.

Does someone know some kind of function to use, even if there is only one element?

Answer 1

This problem is discussed in this issue on Github. The xmltodict package now supports

d = xmltodict.parse(s, force_list={'car'})

Although this still doesn't create an empty list if the field is absent.