Find and Replace text in XML tags in Unix

Question

I need to change date format in XML tags. I have written awk to find-replace date format in command line - echo '2012-01-13' | awk -v FS=- -v OFS=/ '{print $2,$3,$1}' . But not sure how to proceed with using this in XML..

XML used

<OrderNbr>136642</OrderNbr>
<CustomerName>MIKE</CustomerName>
<CustomerType>NEW</CustomerType>
<DateOfBirth>1986-09-03</DateOfBirth>
<LastUpdated>2012-03-28 00:01:02.133</LastUpdated>

Need to change DoB format across XML.

Expected Output:

<OrderNbr>136642</OrderNbr>
<CustomerName>MIKE</CustomerName>
<CustomerType>NEW</CustomerType>
<DateOfBirth>09/03/1986</DateOfBirth>
<LastUpdated>2012-03-28 00:01:02.133</LastUpdated>

Don't do that. If the input is valid XML (which your example is not), then use an XML-aware tool like xmlstarlet or xsltproc. Secondly, you should not convert a perfectly good date format into a stupid date format. — Michael Vehrs
– Michael Vehrs, Commented Oct 5, 2016 at 12:16

Sundeep · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-05 12:21:33Z

2

Here's one way to do, provided the <DateOfBirth> tag and date are on same line

$ cat ip.xml
<OrderNbr>136642</OrderNbr>
<CustomerName>MIKE</CustomerName>
<CustomerType>NEW</CustomerType>
<DateOfBirth>1986-09-03</DateOfBirth>
<LastUpdated>2012-03-28 00:01:02.133</LastUpdated>

$ sed -E '/<DateOfBirth>/ s|([0-9]{4})-([0-9]{2})-([0-9]{2})|\2/\3/\1|' ip.xml 
<OrderNbr>136642</OrderNbr>
<CustomerName>MIKE</CustomerName>
<CustomerType>NEW</CustomerType>
<DateOfBirth>09/03/1986</DateOfBirth>
<LastUpdated>2012-03-28 00:01:02.133</LastUpdated>

-E extended regex option
/<DateOfBirth>/ substitute only on lines matching <DateOfBirth>
([0-9]{4})-([0-9]{2})-([0-9]{2}) extract date with numbers alone captured
\2/\3/\1 required output format

This might work if extended regex option is not available:

sed '/<DateOfBirth>/ s|\([0-9]\{4\}\)-\([0-9]\{2\}\)-\([0-9]\{2\}\)|\2/\3/\1|' ip.xml

5 Comments

Siva Over a year ago

I guess my bash is old. sed -E ain't working.. Thanks very much :)

Sundeep Over a year ago

@Siva, in that case, it is better to add which sed version you have and may be which OS too.. would a perl solution be okay? would be very similar to sed

Sundeep Over a year ago

@Siva, I've also added a solution without -E option, can you check if that works?

Siva Over a year ago

Thanks Sundeep, the second one worked. Thanks a ton :) Didn't try perl.

Sundeep Over a year ago

@Siva, glad that worked, don't forget to accept the answer which worked the best for you :)

P.... · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-05 08:31:07Z

1

Here is awk version: This will check for the string "DateOfBirth". If this string is seen then extract the date and then format it. use sub to replace date with modified date.

awk -F'<|>' '/DateOfBirth/{split($3,a,"-");sub($3, a[2]"/"a[3]"/"a[1])}1' xml
<OrderNbr>136642</OrderNbr>
<CustomerName>MIKE</CustomerName>
<CustomerType>NEW</CustomerType>
<DateOfBirth>09/03/1986</DateOfBirth>
<LastUpdated>2012-03-28 00:01:02.133</LastUpdated>

Note: Use some XML aware tool. warned.

answered Oct 5, 2016 at 8:31

P....

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