[SOLVED] [Beautiful Soup] Replace tag.string from another file?

Winfried · (This post was last modified: May-01-2025, 03:44 PM by Winfried.)

Hello,

In an HTML page ("target"), I'd like to replace the body's text with the body from another file ("source").

Neither ".string", ".text", nor "str()" seems the right way to do it :-/ Does someone know?

Thank you.

""" target
<body>
	<div id="body">FILL_ME</div>
</body>
"""

#TypeError: decoding to str: need a bytes-like object, NoneType found
target.body.find('div', id='body').string = source.body.string

#&lt;
target.body.find('div', id='body').string = str(source.body)

#plain text, tags gone
target.body.find(id="body").string.replace_with(source.body.text)

#TypeError: decoding to str: need a bytes-like object, Tag found
target.body.find('div', id='body').string = source.body

#AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'replace_with'
target.body.find(string="FILL_ME").replace_with(source.body)

Winfried · Apr-29-2025, 05:45 AM

Still stuck :-/

The goal is to 1) grab "<i>good stuff</i>" from the input, and 2) use it to replace "FILL_ME" in the output:

html_in = """
<body>
	<i>good stuff</i>
</body>
"""

html_out = """
<body>
	<div id="body">FILL_ME</div>
</body>
"""
soup_in = BeautifulSoup(html_in,"html.parser")
soup_out = BeautifulSoup(html_out,"html.parser")
body_copy = copy.copy(soup_in.body)
#print(body_copy)

#ValueError: Cannot replace an element with its contents when that element is not part of a tree.
#body_copy.unwrap()
#stuff = body_copy.unwrap()

#NONE stuff = body_copy.string
#PLAIN stuff = body_copy.text
#PLAIN stuff = body_copy.get_text()
#&lt; stuff = str(body_copy)
print(stuff)

#soup_out.find("div", id="body").string.replace_with(body_copy)
soup_out.find("div", id="body").string.replace_with(stuff)
print(soup_out)

Winfried · May-01-2025, 03:43 PM

For others' benefit:

html_in = """
<body>
	<i>good stuff</i>
	
<i>more good stuff</i>

</body>
"""

html_out = """
<body>
	<div id="body">FILL_ME</div>
</body>
"""

soup_in = BeautifulSoup(html_in,"html.parser")
soup_out = BeautifulSoup(html_out,"html.parser")

new_body = soup_out.find('div', id='body')
new_body.clear()
new_body.extend(soup_in.body.contents)

print(soup_out)

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[SOLVED] [Beautiful Soup] Replace tag.string from another file?

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