[Lunatixz]

Hi, I'm trying to read and replace lines in an xml file.

I'm trying to find "<control type="videowindow">" and it's companion "</control>"
replacing "<control type="videowindow">" is easy enough (since there is only one), but finding it's matching "</control>" is the tricky part.

I figure the easiest way would be to readline the xml file and use search n replace, but I can't figure out the correct regex pattern to match the string.

Could some either suggest a better alternative or assist me in creating a regex for this pattern?

Thanks

[giftie]

You probably can use ElementTree to parse then write the XML file.

[Lunatixz]

You probably can use ElementTree to parse then write the XML file.

Yeah I was thinking about ET or mini Dom, but the xml has many entries. I need to maintain the format while only changing the one control. If I use a parser wouldn't I lose track of its line position?

Regex is the biggest pain to figure out.

[Lunatixz]

I ended up adding a unique comment to the end of "</control> <!-- end -->"
So search and replace has a string it can match...

[Roman_V_M]

regexes are a wrong tool for the task. Look at BeautifulSoup, for example.

[Karnagious]

regexes are a wrong tool for any task.

FYP

[powlo]

Yeah I'd second using something like lxml or ElementTree.

[Lunatixz]

thanks for the alternatives, I'll test them out.