Python - Issues Parsing Large XML Files with ElementTree and Memory Errors
I'm trying to parse a large XML file (around 500MB) using Python's `xml.etree.ElementTree`, but I'm running into memory issues that cause my script to crash with a `MemoryError`. The XML structure is quite deep, and I suspect that loading the entire tree into memory at once is the root cause. I've tried using `iterparse` to process the file in chunks, but I'm still working with issues. Here’s the code snippet I’m currently using: ```python import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET def parse_large_xml(file_path): context = ET.iterparse(file_path, events=('start', 'end')) for event, elem in context: if event == 'end' and elem.tag == 'YourTag': # Replace 'YourTag' with the relevant tag print(elem.attrib) # Process your element here elem.clear() # Clear the element to save memory parse_large_xml('large_file.xml') ``` Even with `elem.clear()`, I'm still seeing high memory usage. I’ve also tried increasing the swap space on my machine, but it hasn’t resolved the scenario. Are there any best practices or patterns for handling large XML files in Python without running into memory issues? Are there alternative libraries that might handle this better, or specific configurations I should consider?