Find and Replace text in XML file using c#

Question

I am trying to find and replace text in an xml file using c#. What I want is to change server name in the url link throughout the file.

http://Server1.extranet.abc/server1webdev/rest/services/ABC/ABC_Base/MapServer

to

http://Server2.extranet.abc/server1webdev/rest/services/ABC/ABC_Base/MapServer

I tried using System.xml.linq (XDocument.load(xmlpath)) but it simply gives me the whole xml file as one line of string. Is there a way I can replace the text?Note that the url's are not in specific nodes., they are random throughout file. I am able to do this manually through the file's find and replace, is there a way of doing this programmatically?

What about simple String.Replace: xmlString = xmlString.Replace(oldUrl, newUrl)? — Sergey Berezovskiy
– Sergey Berezovskiy, Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 14:59
Right, if you're just doing such a simple replace, why even bother parsing it. — Yuriy Faktorovich
– Yuriy Faktorovich, Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 15:02
I have to do this for a lot of files and there might be cases where I might need to change some other text in the url, @lazyberezovsky can you please elaborate? How do I extract the xml string?it is random throughout the file not in any specific node. Thanks — GBh
– GBh, Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 15:06
@lazyberezovsky Hi Thanls alot your idea of xmlString = xmlString.Replace(oldUrl, newUrl) works. I would suggest converting xml to a string replace the content and parse it back as an xml.Cool! — GBh
– GBh, Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 16:36

No Idea For Name · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-11 15:03:38Z

10

if you have the entire xml file as string you can replace what you need by doing:

string oldStr = @"http://Server1.extranet.abc/server1webdev/rest/services/ABC/ABC_Base/MapServer";
string newStr = @"http://Server2.extranet.abc/server1webdev/rest/services/ABC/ABC_Base/MapServer ";

doc.Replace(oldStr, newStr);

but normally if you want to change a value of a tag in xml i can suggest an example and you put it to use in your xml:

     XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("D:\\tst.xml");
     foreach (XElement cell in doc.Element("Actions").Elements("Action"))
     {
        if (cell.Element("ActionDate").Value == oldStr)
        {
           cell.Element("ActionDate").Value = newStr;
        }
     } 

     doc.Save("D:\\tst.xml");

answered Sep 11, 2013 at 15:03

No Idea For Name

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4 Comments

GBh Over a year ago

Hi No Idea For Name,thanks for the reply, isnt there a way to simply replace the text? The url is placed in random elements/nodes, I cant pinpoint them.Also for the first part I couldnt find doc.Replace, there is only doc.ReplaceWith(object) and it needs the node

GBh Over a year ago

Secondly I want to replace just some bits of text and not the whole url, is there another way? Thanks

No Idea For Name Over a year ago

@GBh you won't find doc because i don't know how you called your string, but you said you have the whole file as a string, so you can call Replace on a string.

No Idea For Name Over a year ago

@GBh also, if you want to work with xDocument you can go recursively on your child nodes searching the value for the given url

Denise Skidmore · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-25 18:05:46Z

1

List<XElement> allElements = xmlDocument.Descendants().ToList();
foreach (XElement element in allElements.Where(e => e.Value == oldstring))
{
    element.Value = newstring
}

Alternatively Where clause could have a Contains and Value could use string replace.

A side tip to preserve line numbers when loading XDocument, which is super handy if you're doing validation:

XDocument xmlDocument = XDocument.Load(xmlFile, LoadOptions.SetLineInfo);

answered Feb 25, 2021 at 18:05

Denise Skidmore

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Comments

testalino · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-21 09:15:47Z

0

Using XDocument there is currently no built-in way to replace text in the whole file. However what you can do is

XDocument document = XDocument.LoadFrom(path);
var docText = document.ToString().Replace(urlA, urlB);
using (var reader = new StringReader(docText))
    document = XDocument.Load(reader, LoadOptions.None);

Which is not ideal, but at least it's a workaround.

answered Oct 21, 2020 at 9:15

testalino

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