Selectolax is a fast and lightweight Python library for parsing HTML5 documents with CSS selectors. It leverages Cython bindings to the high-performance Modest and Lexbor engines, with Lexbor being the recommended and actively developed backend. It is actively maintained, with frequent releases addressing bugs and adding features.
pip install selectolaxVerified import paths — ran on the pinned version, not inferred.
This example demonstrates how to parse an HTML string using `LexborHTMLParser`, extract text from specific elements using CSS selectors, and iterate through multiple matching elements to gather data. It also shows how to access attributes and safely handle cases where an element might not be found.
Adjust any code that relies on the exact serialization format of empty tags. If you were parsing and then re-serializing, verify that the new format does not break downstream processes.
Replace `from selectolax.parser import HTMLParser` with `from selectolax.lexbor import LexborHTMLParser` and update instantiation accordingly.
Always check if the result of `css_first()` is not `None` before proceeding: `node = tree.css_first('selector'); if node: ...`.Avoid installing `0.4.5`. Upgrade to `0.4.6` or later, or downgrade to `0.4.4` if necessary.
Upgrade to `selectolax` version `0.4.6` or `0.4.7` (or newer) to benefit from these critical memory and stability fixes.
If compilation errors occur, try `pip install selectolax[cython]` to explicitly install Cython, which can help resolve these issues.
pip install selectolax
from selectolax.parser import HTMLParser
Use `node.text()` instead of `node.text` to retrieve the text content of the node.
Always check if the result of a node selection method is not `None` before attempting to access its attributes or methods, e.g., `node = tree.css_first('selector')
if node: print(node.text())`