Parsing XML with xpath in Python

Question

I'm using the following code to check on a condition based on value of an xpath. Not all XMLs I've has this xpath. I want to identify which XML has this xpath, and which one don't. I'm using "from lxml import etree"

Sample XML - A:

<x>
  <a>
     <b>30</b>
  </a>
</x>

Sample XML - B:

<x>
  <a>
     <c>20</c>
  </a>
</x>

Code:

check_id = tree.xpath("a/b")
if check_id != None:
    is_id = True
else:
    is_id = False

I want to print 'True' for XML A and 'False' for XML B. But I'm getting this for both:

[] True

Answer 1

I think you should use

check_id = tree.xpath("//*/a/b")