from xml.dom import minidom xmldoc = minidom.parse('./xmls/f1.xml') flow = xmldoc.childNodes[0] match = flow.childNodes[15] ipv4dst = match.getElementsByTagName("ipv4-destination") print ipv4dst[0].childNodes[0].data cvok = match.getElementsByTagName("cvok") print cvok print "ethernet type", match.getElementsByTagName("type")[0].childNodes[0].data # print "ethernet cvok", match.getElementsByTagName("cvok")[0].childNodes[0].data