Remove an Item from an XML Document

by ps1Mar 29, 2016

Removing items from an XML document is almost trivial: you use XPath to identify the node you want to remove, then remove it. Once you save the XML document, you get a new XML file without the item you wanted to get rid of.

Before you play: In a previous tip we showed how to create a new XML file from scratch. This XML document is used in the next example. If you missed the tip, you find the content of the XML file below. Make sure you save it into $env:temp\inventory.xml.

Let's see how you can remove "Server0007" from the XML file:

# this is where the XML sample file was saved
$Path = "$env:temp\inventory.xml"
 
# load it into an XML object
$xml = New-Object -TypeName XML
$xml.Load($Path)

$item = Select-Xml -Xml $xml -XPath '//Machine[Name="Server0007"]'
$null = $item.Node.ParentNode.RemoveChild($item.node)

$xml.Save($Path)

Here is the sample XML document:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='style.xsl'?>
<!–List of machines–>
<Machines current="True" manager="Tobias">
          <!–1. machine details–>
          <Machine test="940854388">
                   <Name>Server0001</Name>
                   <IP>40.101.105.27</IP>
                   <GUID>8c49e799-b661-4076-b325-f030d25b299e</GUID>
                   <Information info1="some info" info2="more info">RawContent</Information>
                   <CodeSegment info3="another attribute"><![CDATA[this is untouched code and can contain special characters /\@<>]]></CodeSegment>
          </Machine>
          <!–2. machine details–>
          <Machine test="1567577618">
                   <Name>Server0002</Name>
                   <IP>161.29.237.75</IP>
                   <GUID>eca864a0-28a6-4e60-9438-c58b3f4c5b91</GUID>
                   <Information info1="some info" info2="more info">RawContent</Information>
                   <CodeSegment info3="another attribute"><![CDATA[this is untouched code and can contain special characters /\@<>]]></CodeSegment>
          </Machine>
          <!–3. machine details–>
          <Machine test="1385488736">
                   <Name>Server0003</Name>
                   <IP>202.222.193.169</IP>
                   <GUID>487b0b85-d03b-4fe1-bec1-895bb4c6f43d</GUID>
                   <Information info1="some info" info2="more info">RawContent</Information>
                   <CodeSegment info3="another attribute"><![CDATA[this is untouched code and can contain special characters /\@<>]]></CodeSegment>
          </Machine>
          <!–4. machine details–>
          <Machine test="1141441915">
                   <Name>Server0004</Name>
                   <IP>115.249.246.167</IP>
                   <GUID>917a1243-c354-41d8-aa8e-5b9bf0334a80</GUID>
                   <Information info1="some info" info2="more info">RawContent</Information>
                   <CodeSegment info3="another attribute"><![CDATA[this is untouched code and can contain special characters /\@<>]]></CodeSegment>
          </Machine>
          <!–5. machine details–>
          <Machine test="2134573729">
                   <Name>Server0005</Name>
                   <IP>239.97.156.231</IP>
                   <GUID>f961916d-ccfb-4395-8e61-59299ef11926</GUID>
                   <Information info1="some info" info2="more info">RawContent</Information>
                   <CodeSegment info3="another attribute"><![CDATA[this is untouched code and can contain special characters /\@<>]]></CodeSegment>
          </Machine>
          <!–6. machine details–>
          <Machine test="1569812933">
                   <Name>Server0006</Name>
                   <IP>66.5.84.251</IP>
                   <GUID>154e5e92-f063-4571-8987-2d3e76b34331</GUID>
                   <Information info1="some info" info2="more info">RawContent</Information>
                   <CodeSegment info3="another attribute"><![CDATA[this is untouched code and can contain special characters /\@<>]]></CodeSegment>
          </Machine>
          <!–7. machine details–>
          <Machine test="426025640">
                   <Name>Server0007</Name>
                   <IP>99.140.184.148</IP>
                   <GUID>0568c635-8bd9-4834-8084-28e1fd78d512</GUID>
                   <Information info1="some info" info2="more info">RawContent</Information>
                   <CodeSegment info3="another attribute"><![CDATA[this is untouched code and can contain special characters /\@<>]]></CodeSegment>
          </Machine>
          <!–8. machine details–>
          <Machine test="1706184427">
                   <Name>Server0008</Name>
                   <IP>129.242.172.7</IP>
                   <GUID>b106eff3-5642-4857-a12d-53d6f552bf07</GUID>
                   <Information info1="some info" info2="more info">RawContent</Information>
                   <CodeSegment info3="another attribute"><![CDATA[this is untouched code and can contain special characters /\@<>]]></CodeSegment>
          </Machine>
          <!–9. machine details–>
          <Machine test="1724935941">
                   <Name>Server0009</Name>
                   <IP>165.234.115.96</IP>
                   <GUID>e72b07ae-e5fa-49a9-a663-f17b4894c50d</GUID>
                   <Information info1="some info" info2="more info">RawContent</Information>
                   <CodeSegment info3="another attribute"><![CDATA[this is untouched code and can contain special characters /\@<>]]></CodeSegment>
          </Machine>
          <!–10. machine details–>
          <Machine test="154244134">
                   <Name>Server0010</Name>
                   <IP>191.162.109.0</IP>
                   <GUID>f4568d8d-2302-404c-8c0e-1f7047cf8a1a</GUID>
                   <Information info1="some info" info2="more info">RawContent</Information>
                   <CodeSegment info3="another attribute"><![CDATA[this is untouched code and can contain special characters /\@<>]]></CodeSegment>
          </Machine>
</Machines>

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Remove an Item from an XML Document

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