Powershell replace a value in XML file

Question

I got 2 XML files I'm reading a value from the first and need to replace that value in the second XML in a specific string, this is what I got so far and it doesn't work well it change the whole XML to #document for some reason

EDIT Reworking my whole logic for the script and I'm stuck with trimming the node, getting an error at IdexOf why?

<BunnyTemplate> <Parm Name="A-1" Source="Application" OnAbsence="1.com"> <Parm Name="A-2" Source="Application" OnAbsence="2.com"> <Parm Name="A-3" Source="Application" OnAbsence="\\3\3"/> <Parm Name="A-4" Source="Application" OnAbsence="4.com"> </BunnyTemplate>

$file1 = "C:\..\Desktop\file1.xml"
$file1Content = [xml](Get-Content $file1)
$targetNode = $file1Content.SelectSingleNode("//General/@findMe")
$trimmedNode = $targetNode.Substring(0, $targetNode.IndexOf('last'))

@MathiasR.Jessen I can't it work related, <something> </something> looks like that with values inside — Bugs Bunny
– Bugs Bunny, Commented May 11, 2020 at 15:33
<BunnyTemplate> <Parm Name="Bunny" Source="Bunny" OnAbsence="value-to-replace"/> </BunnyTemplate> @Remko hope this helps — Bugs Bunny
– Bugs Bunny, Commented May 11, 2020 at 15:37
In the sample XML you can simply do: $file1.BunnyTemplate.parm.OnAbsence = 'NewValue' — Remko
– Remko, Commented May 11, 2020 at 15:42

Mathias R. Jessen · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-11 15:49:32Z

5

Don't use -replace on an XML document, use XPath instead.

Assuming $file2 contains:

<BunnyTemplate>
  <Parm Name="Bunny" Source="Bunny" OnAbsence="value-to-replace"/>
</BunnyTemplate>

... you could do the following:

$file2Xml = [xml](Get-Content $file2)

# Locate target node
$targetNode = $file2Xml.SelectSingleNode("//Parm[@OnAbsence]")

# Overwrite attribute value
$targetNode.SetAttribute('OnAbsence', "text${trimmedNode}")

# save file
$file2Xml.Save("C:\path\to\output.xml")

SelectSingleNode("//Parm[@OnAbsence]") will return the first <Parm> node that has an OnAbsence attribute.

If you specifically need to target one with Source="Bunny", you could use //Parm[@Source = 'Bunny'] instead

edited May 11, 2020 at 15:49

answered May 11, 2020 at 15:36

Mathias R. Jessen

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6 Comments

Bugs Bunny Over a year ago

Thanks for the quick replay, I'm not sure how I should use the xpath could you provide an example?

Mathias R. Jessen Over a year ago

@BugsBunny You're already using XPath to retrieve the value from $file1! If you update your question with a sample of $file2 I can show you, just redact any company-specific values

Mathias R. Jessen Over a year ago

@BugsBunny Updated the answer

Bugs Bunny Over a year ago

Hmm idk what went wrong but now if I try to Get-Content from the XML file and write-host it I don't get anything but no error

Mathias R. Jessen Over a year ago

@BugsBunny please stop posting code in comments. Edit your post and add a sample for both files

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