PowerShell Script to Delete XML Element

Question

I have an XML doccument that looks like this:

<Task>
    <Settings>
    </Settings>
    <Sub>foo</Sub>
    <Body>bar</Body>
</Task>

From PowerShell I can happily get the contents of 'Sub' and 'Body' using:

$Body = $XMLFile.Task.Body

But I am trying to REMOVE the 'Sub' and 'Body' Tags completely so the XML would be:

<Task>
    <Settings>
    </Settings>
</Task>

I have already Tried many things, Including:

Using the .RemoveChild() method (Threw an exeption relating to Object reference)
Removing with an XPath Statement and adding a Pipe to remove in one line
Even opening the file as a text file and trying:

Get-Content $_.FullName -notmatch "<Sub>" | out-file $_.FullName

^^ This does nothing at all

Also for this application of script I would be unable to use any third party modules

Mathias R. Jessen · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-18 12:55:14Z

12

You can use Where-Object to find the Child nodes you want to remove and then call RemoveChild():

$Input = "C:\path\task.xml"
$Output = "C:\path\newtask.xml"

# Load the existing document
$Doc = [xml](Get-Content $Input)

# Specify tag names to delete and then find them
$DeleteNames = "Sub","Body"
($Doc.Task.ChildNodes |Where-Object { $DeleteNames -contains $_.Name }) | ForEach-Object {
    # Remove each node from its parent
    [void]$_.ParentNode.RemoveChild($_)
}

# Save the modified document
$Doc.Save($Output)

edited Jul 18, 2015 at 12:55

answered Jul 17, 2015 at 15:16

Mathias R. Jessen

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5 Comments

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

In general I think it's better to use $_.ParentNode.RemoveChild($_), so the code inside the loop doesn't need to know the absolute path of the node being removed. However, for that to work the selection must be completed before removing any node, e.g. by running it in an expression: ($Doc.Task.ChildNodes | Where-Object {...}) | ...

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

Addendum: I think the same applies to your code. Running it as-is removed only the Sub child node, not the Body child node. Tested on PowerShell v4.

Mathias R. Jessen Over a year ago

@AnsgarWiechers nice catch, I just reproduced the same behavior on v4, updating answer

Fredrik Erlandsson Over a year ago

How can this run in "Constrained Language Mode"?

Mathias R. Jessen Over a year ago

Usually you'd configure CLM via an application control policy (eg. by enabling AppLocker or SRP) or as part of a remote endpoint configuration. In all three cases, you can allow specific modules or scripts to load. For AppLocker/SRP: update policy rules; for a constrained remoting endpoint: add a script or module containing the above code to the session configuration file

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