Remove a node from an XML tree using lxml objectify and xpath

lxml_xpath_remove.py

from StringIO import StringIO
from lxml import objectify

class SampleParser:

    def __init__(self, xml_data):
        tree = objectify.parse(xml_data)
        self.root = tree.getroot()

    def student_names(self):
        return [name.text for name in self.root.xpath('//Student/name')]

    def remove_student(self, student_name):
        students = [name.getparent() for name in self.root.xpath('//Student/name') if name.text == student_name]
        for student in students:
            student.getparent().remove(student)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    student_xml = """
        <Students>
            <Student>
                <name>Bob</name>
            </Student>
            <Student>
                <name>Alice</name>
            </Student>
            <Student>
                <name>Stephen</name>
            </Student>
            <Student>
                <name>Alice</name>
            </Student>
        </Students>"""

    parser = SampleParser(StringIO(student_xml))
    print(', '.join(parser.student_names()))
    parser.remove_student('Alice')
    print(', '.join(parser.student_names()))