Petko Petkov wrote: > return cdatastring.lstrip('<![CDATA[').rstrip(']]>') this doesn't do what you think it does: >>> data = "<!CDATA[CDATA]]>" >>> data.lstrip('<![CDATA[').rstrip(']]>') '' >>> data = "TADA!" >>> data.lstrip('<![CDATA[').rstrip(']]>') '' >>> data = "<hello />" >>> data.lstrip('<![CDATA[').rstrip(']]>') 'hello /' </F>