Dynamically modifying XML's based on a criteria

Python Help
1

I have hit a large brick wall attempting to solve my current problem. I have 100’s of xml files and need to modify them based on a list of values. The values in the list should be removed from the xml’s. I can’t simply delete the values as it causes the xml’s to be unparsable. So I have to replace the line with a differing field.
I have tried data.replace to replace the string but I have to put a variable in the ID field and VALUE filed , so far it doesn’t take it.

var1 =  9.ZZXX
var2 = ZZXX
with open(i_path0, 'r') as f:
               data = f.read()
data = f.read()

data.replace('<MacELxsi:type="MatrixP" Field="NAME" Id="'+var1+'"> <Metadata Key="NAME" Value="'+var2+"/> </MacEL>', '<MacELxsi:type="MatrixLab"  Text="Blah"><BackgroundColor ColorCode="Grey"/> <ForegroundColor ColorCode="White"/></MacEL>')

with open(i_path0, "w") as w:                    
            w.write(data)

I am trying to replace this …

 <MacELxsi:type="MatrixP" Field="NAME" Id="9.ZZXX"> <Metadata Key="NAME" Value="ZZXX"/> </MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixP" Field="DESCN" Id="9.ZZXX"> <Metadata Key="NAME" Value="ZZXX"/> </MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixP" Id="9.ZZXX"> <Metadata Key="NAME" Value="ZZXX"/></MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixP" Field="UNIT" Id="9.ZZXX"> <Metadata Key="NAME" Value="ZZXX"/></MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixP" Field="VAL" Id="9.ZZXX"> <Metadata Key="NAME" Value="ZZXX"/></MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixP" Field="TEST" Id="9.ZZXX"> <Metadata Key="NAME" Value="ZZXX"/></MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixP" Field="TIME" Id="9.ZZXX"> <Metadata Key="NAME" Value="ZZXX"/> </MacEL>

With this…

<MacELxsi:type="MatrixLab"  Text="Blah"><BackgroundColor ColorCode="Grey"/> <ForegroundColor ColorCode="White"/></MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixLab"  Text="Blah"><BackgroundColor ColorCode="Grey"/> <ForegroundColor ColorCode="White"/></MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixLab"  Text="Blah"><BackgroundColor ColorCode="Grey"/> <ForegroundColor ColorCode="White"/></MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixLab"  Text="Blah"><BackgroundColor ColorCode="Grey"/> <ForegroundColor ColorCode="White"/></MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixLab"  Text="Blah"><BackgroundColor ColorCode="Grey"/> <ForegroundColor ColorCode="White"/></MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixLab"  Text="Blah"><BackgroundColor ColorCode="Grey"/> <ForegroundColor ColorCode="White"/></MacEL>
<MacELxsi:type="MatrixLab"  Text="Blah"><BackgroundColor ColorCode="Grey"/> <ForegroundColor ColorCode="White"/></MacEL>

The list will contain mutliple values like this …testlist =[ZZXX, XXZZ, YYZZ, XXYY]

Any suggestions would be apprecaited.

2

You can use lxml.
Parse your documents

import xml.etree.ElementTree

xml_tree = xml.etree.ElementTree.parse(xml_file)

Then search for the elements that you need

from lxml.etree import Element

for elem in xml_tree.findall(element_name):
    if elem.attrib:  # whatever condition(s) their attributes should have.
        new_elem = Element(new_element_name, new_element_attributes)
        elem = new_elem