Question

I’m trying to replace a string in an xml file with python. For example:

I want to change enabled to disbabled in:

<s:global-method-security secured-annotations="enabled"/>

Is it best to search and replace the whole line? Or is there a way to just replaced the enabled on the line if I find a line that matches?

Answer 1

A simple way could be:

for line in fileh:
    line = line.replace("enabled", "disabled")
    ouf.write(line)

You do not need to explicitly find “enabled” in the string before replacing it.

However, since its an xml file, I would suggest using the xml parser to modify it.