How to replace old value between XML tags with new value

Question

I have to replace the oldValue in the date tag with the newValue in the below XML. I am using setAttribute function to do that but it doesn't seem to work. Please do let me know if I have to use a different function for replace text between tags.

myfile.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>  
<root>  
        <date>oldValue</date>  
</root>

replace.java

Document doc = builder.parse(new File("myFile.xml"));  
Element root = doc.getDocumentElement();  
System.out.println("Before");  
System.out.println("Using getElementByTagName date: " + root.getElementsByTagName("date").item(0).getTextContent());  
System.out.println("Using getAttribute        date: " + root.getAttribute("date"));
root.setAttribute("date", "newValue");  
System.out.println("After");  
System.out.println("Using getElementByTagName date: " + root.getElementsByTagName("date").item(0).getTextContent());  
System.out.println("Using getAttribute        date: " + root.getAttribute("date"));

Output:

**Before**  
 Using getElementByTagName date: oldValue  
 Using getAttribute        date:  
 **After**  
 Using getElementByTagName date: oldValue  
 Using getAttribute        date: test  

With the a lot of reading/experimentation, I have found setAttribute() works for replacing an XML like this. But, this doesn't work for me.

Answer 1

You need setTextContent(String textContent) method and not setAttribute method.

root.getElementsByTagName("date").item(0).setTextContent("newValue");

oldValue is the TextContent of <date> element, not attribute. Check here to find what is attribute.

Answer 2

If you set attribute you change attribute of node root, so it will be like <root attrName = "attrValue">

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