How do I replace an XML root node with one of its child nodes?

Question

I want to remove some parent nodes from a XML document but keep the children. For example:

I have this structure:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ns:root xmlns:ns="ns">
    <ns:node1>
        <ns:node2>
            <ns:node3>
            </ns:node3>
            <ns:node4>
            </ns:node4>
        </ns:node2>
    </ns:node1>
</ns:root>

and want to get this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ns:node2 xmlns:ns="ns">   <!-- new root -->
    <ns:node3>
    </ns:node3>
    <ns:node4>
    </ns:node4>
</ns:node2>

My current script looks like this:

# Get the content as xml
$xml = [xml] (gc c:\test.xml)


# Grab the namespace
$namespaceMgr = New-Object System.Xml.XmlNamespaceManager $xml.NameTable
$namespace = $xml.DocumentElement.NamespaceURI
$namespaceMgr.AddNamespace("ns", $namespace)

# Select node2
$xml.SelectSingleNode('/ns:root/ns:node1/ns:node2', $namespaceMgr) 

# How to save it now as a new valid xml file?

Since your code suggests your XML data uses namespaces, your sample data should reflect that. — Ansgar Wiechers
– Ansgar Wiechers, Commented Jun 25, 2014 at 13:04

Ansgar Wiechers · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-25 13:03:28Z

1

Remove the existing child elements from the XML objects and append the node you selected before, then write the modified XML object back to a file:

...

$node = $xml.SelectSingleNode('/ns:root/ns:node1/ns:node2', $namespaceMgr)

$xml.RemoveAll()
$xml.AppendChild($node)

$xml.Save('C:\test.xml')

answered Jun 25, 2014 at 13:03

Ansgar Wiechers

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