Powershell: Nested XML Element is String Type Instead Of XmlElement

Question

[xml]$xml = @"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
    <elementLevel1>
        <elementLevel2>text node 1</elementLevel2>
        <elementLevel2>text node 2</elementLevel2>
        <elementLevel2>text node 3</elementLevel2>
        <elementLevel2>text node 4</elementLevel2>
    </elementLevel1>
    <elementLevel1>
        <elementLevel2>text node 1</elementLevel2>
        <elementLevel2>text node 2</elementLevel2>
        <elementLevel2>text node 3</elementLevel2>
        <elementLevel2>text node 4</elementLevel2>
    </elementLevel1>
</root>
"@

foreach($level1 in $xml.root.elementLevel1)
{
    Write-Host("Type of elementLevel1: " + $level1.GetType())
    Write-Host("Type of elementLevel2 in outer loop: " + $level1.elementLevel2.GetType())
    foreach($level2 in $level1.elementLevel2)
    {
        Write-Host("Type of elementLevel2 in inner loop: " + $level2.GetType())
    }
}

Yields:

Type of elementLevel1: System.Xml.XmlElement
Type of elementLevel2 in outer loop: System.Object[]
Type of elementLevel2 in inner loop: string
Type of elementLevel2 in inner loop: string
Type of elementLevel2 in inner loop: string
Type of elementLevel2 in inner loop: string
Type of elementLevel1: System.Xml.XmlElement
Type of elementLevel2 in outer loop: System.Object[]
Type of elementLevel2 in inner loop: string
Type of elementLevel2 in inner loop: string
Type of elementLevel2 in inner loop: string
Type of elementLevel2 in inner loop: string

My ultimate goal is to change the text node of each elementLevel2, but you can't modify the InnerXml property of a string and you can't cast a string to a [System.Xml.XmlElement]. How can I coerce the type system to think elementLevel2 is an XmlElement?

Martin Brandl · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-03 13:44:04Z

3

You coud use SelectNodes with a xpath to select your nodes and iterate over it:

$lvl2Elements = $xml.SelectNodes("//root/elementLevel1/elementLevel2")

foreach($element in $lvl2Elements)
{    
    $element.'#text' = 'Test'
}

answered Aug 3, 2015 at 13:44

Martin Brandl

59.4k16 gold badges151 silver badges190 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Dzejms Over a year ago

Thanks, that gets me out of my jam.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Powershell: Nested XML Element is String Type Instead Of XmlElement

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related