Python3 XML subdocument incremental processing

output.txt

{'country.rank': ['1'], 'country.year': ['2008'], 'country.gdppc': ['141100'], 'country.neighbor.@name': ['Austria', 'Switzerland'], 'country.neighbor.@direction': ['E', 'W'], 'country.@name': ['Liechtenstein']}
{'country.rank': ['4'], 'country.year': ['2011'], 'country.gdppc': ['59900'], 'country.neighbor.@name': ['Malaysia'], 'country.neighbor.@direction': ['N'], 'country.@name': ['Singapore']}
{'country.rank': ['68'], 'country.year': ['2011'], 'country.gdppc': ['13600'], 'country.neighbor.@name': ['Costa Rica', 'Colombia'], 'country.neighbor.@direction': ['W', 'E'], 'country.@name': ['Panama']}

sample4.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<data>
    <country name="Liechtenstein">
        <rank>1</rank>
        <year>2008</year>
        <gdppc>141100</gdppc>
        <neighbor name="Austria" direction="E"/>
        <neighbor name="Switzerland" direction="W"/>
    </country>
    <country name="Singapore">
        <rank>4</rank>
        <year>2011</year>
        <gdppc>59900</gdppc>
        <neighbor name="Malaysia" direction="N"/>
    </country>
    <country name="Panama">
        <rank>68</rank>
        <year>2011</year>
        <gdppc>13600</gdppc>
        <neighbor name="Costa Rica" direction="W"/>
        <neighbor name="Colombia" direction="E"/>
    </country>
</data>

xml_subdocument_processing.py

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
from collections import defaultdict

# Path to XML file
file_path = "/Users/Raphael/Downloads/sample4.xml"

# Result Container
result = []

# XMl Namespaces Mapping the Fully Qualified Namespace to its prefix
# h ->   http://www.w3.org/HTML/1998/html4
namespaces = {}

# Path to current processed xml element
xml_path   = []

# Flag indicating namespace removal
remove_namespaces = True

# Given a tag name we process the xml file as a collection of subdocuments
subdocument_tag = "country"




### Helper

def remove_namespace(tag):
    if "}" in tag:
        tag = tag.split("}")[1]
    
    return tag


def shorten_namespace(tag):
    for k, v in namespaces.items():
        pass

def process_xml():
    subresult = None

    for event, elem in ET.iterparse(file_path, events=("start-ns", "start", "end")):
        if event == 'start':
            tag = elem.tag
            if tag.endswith(subdocument_tag):
                subresult = defaultdict(list)

            if remove_namespaces:
                tag = remove_namespace(elem.tag)
            
            # Starting tracking the path from subdocument tag
            if tag.endswith(subdocument_tag) or subdocument_tag in xml_path:
                xml_path.append(tag)

        elif event == 'end':
            # process the tag
            if elem.tag.endswith(subdocument_tag):
                result.append( subresult )
                #continue

            if elem.text and elem.text.strip():
                key = ".".join(xml_path)
                subresult[key].append(elem.text)
            
            if elem.attrib:
                prefix = ".".join(xml_path)
                for attribute, value in elem.attrib.items():
                    key = prefix + ".@" + attribute
                    subresult[key].append(value)


            # Starting tracking the path from subdocument tag
            if tag.endswith(subdocument_tag) or subdocument_tag in xml_path:    
                xml_path.pop()

            # Delete SubDocument when processing is done
            if subdocument_tag and elem.tag.endswith(subdocument_tag):
                elem.clear()

        elif event == "start-ns":
            namespaces[ "{" + elem[1] + "}"] = elem[0]


process_xml()

# Print Namespaces
for k, v in namespaces.items():
    print(k, " ", v)

# Print Result
for item in result:
    print( dict(item) )