Question

I have an XML file with the following line:

            <VALUE DECIMAL_VALUE='0.2725' UNIT_TYPE='percent'/> 

I would like to increment this value by .04 and keep the format of the XML in place. I know this is possible with a Perl or awk script, but I am having difficulty with the expressions to isolate the number.

Answer 1

If you’re on a box with the xsltproc command in place I would suggest you use XSLT for this.

For a Perl solution I’d go for using the DOM. Check this DOM Processing with Perl article out.

That said. If your XML file is produced in a predictable way something naïve like the following could work:

perl -pe 's#(<VALUE DECIMAL_VALUE=')([0-9.]+)(' UNIT_TYPE='percent'/>)#'$1' . ($2 + 0.4) . '$3'#e;'