XML edit attributes

Question

Hi, I want to edit the attributes of an element in an XML file.

The file looks like

<Parameter name="Spec 2 Circumference/Length" type="real" mode="both">
    <Value>0.0</Value> 
    <Result>0.0</Result> 
</Parameter>

I want to replace the value and Result attribute with some other value from a text file.

Please suggest. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

An example using ElementTree. It will replace the Value elements text with some string; the procedure for the Result element is analogue and omitted here:

#!/usr/bin/env python

xml = """
<Parameter name="Spec 2 Circumference/Length" type="real" mode="both">
    <Value>0.0</Value> 
    <Result>0.0</Result> 
</Parameter>
"""

from elementtree.ElementTree import fromstring, tostring

# read XML, here we read it from a String
doc = fromstring(xml)

for e in doc.findall('Value'):
    e.text = 'insert your string from your textfile here!'

print tostring(doc)

# will result in:
#
# <Parameter mode="both" name="Spec 2 Circumference/Length" type="real">
#     <Value>insert your string from your textfile here!</Value> 
#     <Result>0.0</Result> 
# </Parameter>