How to Use lxml with BeautifulSoup in Python

Last Updated : 04 Jul, 2024

In this article, we will explore how to use lxml with BeautifulSoup in Python. lxml is a high-performance XML and HTML parsing library for Python, known for its speed and comprehensive feature set. It supports XPath, XSLT, validation, and efficient handling of large documents, making it a preferred choice for web scraping and XML processing tasks.

What is lxml?

lxml is a powerful Python library for processing XML and HTML documents. It provides a fast and efficient way to parse, manipulate, and extract data from XML and HTML files using an ElementTree-like API combined with the speed of libxml2 and libxslt libraries. lxml is widely used in web scraping, data extraction, and other tasks requiring structured data handling from XML or HTML sources.

Use lxml with BeautifulSoup in Python

Below, we will explain step-by-step how to install lxml in Python.

Step 1: Create a Virtual Environment

Open VSCode and navigate to the directory where you want to work. Create a virtual environment using the terminal in VSCode.

Step 2: Install BeautifulSoup Library

With the virtual environment activated, install lxml using pip:

Note: Assumming you have installed beautifulsoup 4

pip install lxml

Step 3: Import lxml in Python Script

Once installed, you can import lxml into your Python script or interactive session:

from lxml import etree

Using lxml with BeautifulSoup

Example 1: Parsing HTML from a URL

In this example, lxml is integrated with BeautifulSoup to parse HTML content retrieved from the URL 'https://geeksforgeeks.org'. BeautifulSoup uses lxml as the underlying parser to extract and print the title of the webpage.

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import requests
from lxml import etree

url = 'https://geeksforgeeks.org'
response = requests.get(url)
html_content = response.text
soup = BeautifulSoup(html_content, 'lxml')
title = soup.title.string

print(f"Title of the webpage: {title}")

Output:

Example 2: Parsing HTML from HTML File

In this example, we are using lxml alongside BeautifulSoup to parse an HTML file (index.html) related to GeeksforGeeks. lxml serves as the underlying parser within BeautifulSoup (BeautifulSoup(html_content, 'lxml')), enabling efficient extraction of elements like headings, lists, and links from the structured HTML content.

Python

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from lxml import etree
with open('index.html', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as file:
    html_content = file.read()
soup = BeautifulSoup(html_content, 'lxml')
title = soup.title.string
print(f"Title of the HTML document: {title}")
paragraphs = soup.find_all('p')
for idx, p in enumerate(paragraphs, start=1):
    print(f"Paragraph {idx}: {p.text.strip()}")

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>GeeksforGeeks</title>
</head>
<body>
    <header>
        <h1>Welcome to GeeksforGeeks</h1>
        <p>Hii, I am Paragragh</p>
    </header>
    
    <section>
        <h2>Popular Topics</h2>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python-programming-language/">Python Programming</a></li>
            <li><a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/data-structures/">Data Structures</a></li>
            <li><a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/algorithms/">Algorithms</a></li>
        </ul>
    </section>

    <footer>
        <p>Visit <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org">GeeksforGeeks</a> for more tutorials and articles.</p>
    </footer>
</body>
</html>

Output

Conclusion

In conclusion, integrating lxml with BeautifulSoup offers a powerful combination for parsing and navigating HTML content. lxml enhances parsing speed and supports advanced features like XPath queries within BeautifulSoup, making it ideal for efficient web scraping and data extraction.