Change an XML Value in Python

Question

If I have an XML file such as below, how would I be able to change the version from 50 to 51?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<config>
    <updateCheck seconds="2" />
    <unturnedVersion version="50" />
    <unturnedFolder recoveryBundlesAfterUpdates="false" />
    <rocket useRocket="true" apikey=""/>
    <steam username="" password="" />
    <steamUpdates validate="true" />
    <servers rconEnabled="false">
        <server name="server1" rconPort="27013" rconPassword="pass" />
        <server name="server2" rconPort="27014" rconPassword="pass" />
    </servers>
    <notifyBefore seconds="60" />
</config>

I've tried multiple methods to do it, and some don't do anything or it just creates a new version of the unturnedVersion with 51 at the bottom of the code. I want to simply change 50 to 51 or any other value I set.

Thanks!

Do you know if there will always be just 1 instance of unturnedVersion? If there are multiple, do you want to do this to all of them, or just the first, last, nth, etc.? — dblclik
– dblclik, Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 15:41
I'd prefer XML, if I couldn't get it to work, I was just going to make a separate file and just leave that version in it so I could just write over it... haha — Aubtin Samai
– Aubtin Samai, Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 15:42

alecxe · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-26 15:55:28Z

5

Use xml.etree.ElementTree. Locate the element via, for example, find(), update the version attribute through the .attrib dictionary of an element:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

data = """<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<config>
    <updateCheck seconds="2" />
    <unturnedVersion version="50" />
    <unturnedFolder recoveryBundlesAfterUpdates="false" />
    <rocket useRocket="true" apikey=""/>
    <steam username="" password="" />
    <steamUpdates validate="true" />
    <servers rconEnabled="false">
        <server name="server1" rconPort="27013" rconPassword="pass" />
        <server name="server2" rconPort="27014" rconPassword="pass" />
    </servers>
    <notifyBefore seconds="60" />
</config>"""

root = ET.fromstring(data)
unturned_version = root.find("unturnedVersion")
unturned_version.attrib["version"] = "51"

print(ET.tostring(root))

Prints:

<config>
    <updateCheck seconds="2" />
    <unturnedVersion version="51" />
    <unturnedFolder recoveryBundlesAfterUpdates="false" />
    <rocket apikey="" useRocket="true" />
    <steam password="" username="" />
    <steamUpdates validate="true" />
    <servers rconEnabled="false">
        <server name="server1" rconPassword="pass" rconPort="27013" />
        <server name="server2" rconPassword="pass" rconPort="27014" />
    </servers>
    <notifyBefore seconds="60" />
</config>

Note that, if you want to increment the existing version, use:

unturned_version.attrib["version"] = str(int(unturned_version.attrib["version"]) + 1)

And, if you read an XML from file, use ET.parse():

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET


tree = ET.parse("input.xml")
root = tree.getroot()
unturned_version = root.find("unturnedVersion")
unturned_version.attrib["version"] = str(int(unturned_version.attrib["version"]) + 1)

print(ET.tostring(root))

edited Aug 26, 2016 at 15:55

answered Aug 26, 2016 at 15:41

alecxe

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3 Comments

Aubtin Samai Over a year ago

Does this work: root = ET.parse(os.path.join(MANAGER_FOLDER, "config_RocketUpdater.xml")) ... I have to read the input from an XML file first. I don't get any errors when I change it to that, but the program doesn't change the value either.

alecxe Over a year ago

@AubtinSamai updated with a sample code to read XML from file, works for me.

Aubtin Samai Over a year ago

Thanks, it works! Just had to add write so it would print to the file.

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