How to Modify XML File Content Using PowerShell Script

1. Method 1: Use the child position
2. Method 1: Use the ID
3. Method 3: Use settings.skinsettings.setting

The XML, also known as Extensible Markup Language, is mainly used for representing structured information like documents, data, books, etc., using a simple text-based format.

This article demonstrates how we can modify an XML file using the PowerShell Script. Also, we will see necessary examples and explanations to make the topic easy to understand.

Suppose we have an XML file with the below content.

<settings>
  <setting id="LocationOne" value="Dhaka, Bangladesh" />
  <setting id="LocationTwo" value="zmw:00000.1.08181" />
</settings>

Now we are going to modify the above XML file by using three methods.

Method 1: Use the child position

If you know the position of the child of the specific parent, you can easily modify the value of the particular child node. For this purpose, we can follow the code example given below.

$xml = [xml](Get-Content "G:\PowerShell\Myxml.xml")
$xml.settings.ChildNodes.Item(0).value = "New York, USA"
$xml.Save("G:\PowerShell\Myxml.xml")

In our above example, we first read the content of the XML file and then find the child node by using its position. Here the ChildNodes are used to find the child node, and we pick the specific child using Item(0).

Lastly we save the modified XML file using the line $xml.Save("G:\PowerShell\Myxml.xml"). After executing the script, you will see the following content inside your XML file.

<settings>
  <setting id="LocationOne" value="New York, USA" />
  <setting id="LocationTwo" value="zmw:00000.1.08181" />
</settings>

Method 1: Use the ID

We also can modify the XML file by using the id of a specific element. Here the id is mainly used to pick the particular child node. You can use this method to modify the XML file by following the example shared below:

$xml = [xml](Get-Content "G:\PowerShell\Myxml.xml")
$xml.settings.SelectSingleNode("//setting[@id='LocationOne']").value = "New York, USA"
$xml.Save("G:\PowerShell\Myxml.xml")

Just like our previous example, we first read the contents of the XML file. After that we identify an pick the specific child node by using SelectSingleNode("//setting[@id='LocationOne']") and change its value by using value.

Lastly we saved the modified XML file using the line $xml.Save("G:\PowerShell\Myxml.xml"),
now after executing the above script, you will see the below content inside your XML file.

<settings>
  <setting id="LocationOne" value="New York, USA" />
  <setting id="LocationTwo" value="zmw:00000.1.08181" />
</settings>

Method 3: Use settings.skinsettings.setting

You can follow this example if a parent node contains a single child node. To understand this method suppose we have an XML file with the below content.

<settings>
  <skinsettings>
    <setting type="bool">false</setting>
  </skinsettings>
</settings>

Look at our example below, where we modified the XML file shared above using this method. The code for our example will be as follows:

$xml = [xml](Get-Content "G:\PowerShell\Myxml.xml")
$xml.settings.skinsettings.setting."#text" = "true"
$xml.Save("G:\PowerShell\Myxml.xml")

In the example above, after reading the content of the XML file, we pick the specific child node by using the line settings.skinsettings.setting.

Lastly we saved the modified XML file using the line $xml.Save("G:\PowerShell\Myxml.xml"). You can use this method to modify the XML file by following the example shared below:

<settings>
  <skinsettings>
    <setting type="bool">true</setting>
  </skinsettings>
</settings>

Please note that the example codes shared here are only executable on the Windows PowerShell environment.