python - Formatting the output as XML with lxml -

my program read input file, makes lxml.etree file, example add node etree , want print on file. write on file use:

et.write('documents\write.xml', pretty_print=true) 

and output have is:

<variable name="one" refid="two"><component type="three"><value>four</value></component></variable> 

while i'd like:

<variable name="one" refid="two">     <component type="three">         <value>four</value>     </component>  </variable> 

where mistaken? i've tried many solutions none seems work (beautifulsoup, tidy, parser...)

don't use standard parser. use custom parser remove_blank_text=true.

parser = etree.xmlparser(remove_blank_text=true) tree = etree.parse(self.output_file, parser=parser) // stuff tree here tree.write(your_output_file, pretty_print=true)