Can I download XML data from the web and save, in as CSV or TXT delimitation?

[ryguy7272]

On Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 8:21:50 AM UTC-4, Laura Creighton wrote:
> In a message of Wed, 19 Aug 2015 04:57:44 -0700, ryguy7272 writes:
> >I'm trying to get R to download the data from here:
> >
> >http://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde/report_format/latest-July-2015-New-Format.xml
> >
> >
> ># install and load the necessary package
> >install.packages("XML")
> >library(XML)
> ># Save the URL of the xml file in a variable
> >
> >xml.url <- "http://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde/report_format/latest-July-2015-New-Format.xml"
> ># Use the xmlTreePares-function to parse xml file directly from the web
> >
> >xmlfile <- xmlTreeParse(xml.url)
> ># the xml file is now saved as an object you can easily work with in R:
> >class(xmlfile)
> >
> >
> ># Use the xmlRoot-function to access the top node
> >xmltop = xmlRoot(xmlfile)
> ># have a look at the XML-code of the first subnodes:
> >print(xmltop)[1:3]
> >
> >
> >
> >Everything seems fine up to that point.  The next line seems to NOT parse the data as I thought it would.
> ># To extract the XML-values from the document, use xmlSApply:
> >datacat <- xmlSApply(xmltop, function(x) xmlSApply(x, xmlValue))
> >
> >
> >
> >I did some research on this, and it seemed to work in other examples of xml data. I guess this data set is different...or I just don't understand this well enough to know what's really going on...
> >
> >Basically, I want to get this:
> >
> >xmltop
> >
> >
> >Into a data table. How can I do that?
> >
> >Thanks.
> 
> This is a mailing list about the Python programming language, not R
> xmlSApply is something R uses.  The R mailing lists are here:
> https://www.r-project.org/mail.html
> 
> When you talk to them, tell them exactly what you were expecting as
> a result, what you got instead, and what error messages were generated.
> Also let them know what verison of R you are using and what operating
> system you are running on.  This will make it a lot easier for them
> to help you.
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> Laura Creighton



Well, yes, I was originally trying to do it it R, but I couldn't get it working, so I thought I'd try to do it in Python.  That was a sample R script.  Can I do essentially the same thing in Python?  Can I read the XML from the web?
http://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde/report_format/latest-July-2015-New-Format.xml

Parse it, or clean it, or whatever, and save it as a CSV or TXT?  Is that possible?

Thanks.