How to change the value of XML Element attribute using PowerShell?

Question

I am trying to access and change the particular attribute from XML tag

XML:

<office>
  <staff branch="Hanover" Type="sales">
    <employee>
        <Name>Tobias Weltner</Name>
        <function>management</function>
        <age>39</age>
    </employee>
    <employee>
        <Name>Cofi Heidecke</Name>
        <function>security</function>
        <age>4</age>
    </employee>
  </staff>
  <staff branch="London" Type="Technology">
   <employee>
    <Name>XXXX</Name>
    <function>gement</function>
    <age>39</age>

From the above example I want to print branch attribute and then want to change it with one value such as New York in all the whole XML and using below code to do that

       $xml=New-Object XML

      $xml.Load("C:\FE6Work.xml")

      $node=$xml.SelectNodes("/office/staff")

      write-output $node.branch
      $node.branch="New York"

But get an error stating can't find the element.

Can someone please help?

Possible duplicate of How can I update the value for a XML node using PowerShell? — Unsigned
– Unsigned, Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 18:43

PeterK · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-25 12:27:49Z

58

Try the following:

$nodes = $xml.SelectNodes("/office/staff");
foreach($node in $nodes) {
    $node.SetAttribute("branch", "New York");
}

This will iterate through all nodes returned by SelectNodes() and modify each one.

edited Aug 25, 2015 at 12:27

answered Jul 10, 2014 at 14:54

PeterK

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21 Comments

PeterK Over a year ago

@user3759904: Did you type it as 'setAttribute' or 'SetAttribute' (it should be the latter, it's case-sensitive)?. If you did type it with the correct casing, what happens exactly (e.g. you get an error or the attribute doesn't change)?

user3759904 Over a year ago

Method invocation failed because [System.Xml.XPathNodeList] doesn't contain a method named 'SetAttribute'.

PeterK Over a year ago

@user3759904: You're probably using a different PowerShell version, I have tested with 4.0 and it works flawlessly using your code and input. In any case, I have edited my answer with a longer version, that should work in earlier PowerShell versions as well.

FoxDeploy Over a year ago

Dude, this is awesome! I wrote this big fancy UI and thought I'd have to scrap the whole thing, because I couldn't figure out how to change XML values. +1, awesome, you rock.

Richard Dally Over a year ago

@PeterK, I can't edit your post (too short edit), branch string is missing double quotes at the end.

|

zdan · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-10 17:05:30Z

15

You can access the attributes directly in the [xml] object like this:

# C:\temp> $xml = [xml](Get-Content C:\FE6Work.xml)
# C:\temp> $xml.office.staff

branch                   Type                           employee                                                             
------                   ----                           --------                                                             
Hanover                  sales                          {Tobias Weltner, Cofi Heidecke}                                      
London                   Technology                     {XXXX, Cofi}                                                         

# C:\temp> $xml.office.staff | foreach{$_.branch = "New York"}
# C:\temp> $xml.office.staff

branch                   Type                           employee                                                             
------                   ----                           --------                                                             
New York                 sales                          {Tobias Weltner, Cofi Heidecke}                                      
New York                 Technology                     {XXXX, Cofi}

answered Jul 10, 2014 at 17:05

zdan

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3 Comments

user3759904 Over a year ago

thanks for your help on this, getting a below error on xml.Save($path) any idea on this would be very helpful Multiple ambiguous overloads found for "Save" and the argument count: "1".

user3759904 Over a year ago

Ignore that its sorted

user3759904 Over a year ago

when i am updating file its writing blank values in the xml such as branch set to " " updated code is $folders=$xml.office.Staff | Select-Object{ $FolderNameInitial + $_.branch.Substring(4)} $nodes=$xml.SelectNodes("/office/staff") foreach($node in $nodes) { if($node -eq $null) { write-output "Atrribute/Property not found" } else { $node.SetAttribute("branch",$folders) } } $xml.Save($path)

Ajish Kumar · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-18 09:37:25Z

4

if we are taking attribute from console and changing its value ?

$path=Read-Host -Prompt 'Enter path of xml file'
[xml]$xmldata = get-content "$path"

$tag = Read-Host -Prompt 'Enter tag'
$value = Read-Host -Prompt 'Enter value'
$xmldata.InstallConfig.$tag="$value"
$xmldata.Save($path)

edited Apr 18, 2019 at 9:37

answered Apr 18, 2019 at 9:29

Ajish Kumar

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