Add incremental number to element in XML file (Python)

April 8, 2022

I’m new with Python and I’ve got this issue on my hands that I cannot seem to find a way to resolve it.

I have this XML file where I want to add an incremental number (1,2,3,4,5, etc…) for each <ID> element found in the XML file, at the moment the value is always 0.

Here’s a snapshot of the XML file:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<PlaceData>
  <PlaceRecord>
    <ID>0</ID>
    <Name>Place 1</Name>
    <ID1>1190967</ID1>
  </PlaceRecord>  
  <PlaceRecord>
    <ID>0</ID>
    <Name>Place 2</Name>
    <ID1>1191672</ID1>
  </PlaceRecord>  
  <PlaceRecord>
    <ID>0</ID>
    <Name>Place 3</Name>
    <ID1>1187415</ID1>
  </PlaceRecord>
</PlaceData>

Here’s the code I have so far, adding "0" to all elements:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

placesxml = ET.parse("places.xml")
placesxml_data = placesxml.getroot()

for element in placesxml_data:
    element.find('ID').text = '0'

placesxml.write("places.xml", encoding='UTF-8', xml_declaration=True)

What I would like to have is an incremental value added to each <ID> element:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<PlaceData>
  <PlaceRecord>
    <ID>1</ID>
    <Name>Place 1</Name>
    <ID1>1190967</ID1>
  </PlaceRecord>  
  <PlaceRecord>
    <ID>2</ID>
    <Name>Place 2</Name>
    <ID1>1191672</ID1>
  </PlaceRecord>  
  <PlaceRecord>
    <ID>3</ID>
    <Name>Place 3</Name>
    <ID1>1187415</ID1>
  </PlaceRecord>
</PlaceData>

I’m sorry if this is too basic to ask but like I said, I’m very new at this and would love to know how I can do this for other projects I am working on.

Hope I provided all the info needed, appreciate any help!

>Solution :

Tried the increment approach?

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

placesxml = ET.parse("places.xml")
placesxml_data = placesxml.getroot()

i_id = 0
for element in placesxml_data:
    element.find('ID').text = str(i_id)
    i_id += 1

placesxml.write("places.xml", encoding='UTF-8', xml_declaration=True)