Staaarter Tools

XML Value Replacer

Replaces every occurrence of a substring inside element text content (not tags or attributes) across an entire XML document, a fast find-and-replace scoped to actual data rather than markup. A free online tool from Staaarter, right in your browser.

Runs locallyUpdated 2026-07-23
editing

Overview

Introduction

A plain text find-and-replace on XML risks matching inside tag names or attributes by accident.

This tool replaces text only inside actual element content.

What Is XML Value Replacer?

A scoped find-and-replace tool that walks the parsed document and replaces every occurrence of a substring inside text nodes only.

It then re-serializes the result.

How XML Value Replacer Works

The document is parsed into a tree, and every text node's content has the search substring replaced via a straightforward split/join, so all occurrences within a node are replaced.

The tree is then re-serialized.

When To Use XML Value Replacer

Use it to correct a recurring typo or update a placeholder value.

It's also useful for bulk-editing data content without risking a match inside markup.

Often used alongside XML Key Replacer, XML Comment Replacer and XML Value Finder.

Features

Advantages

  • Never accidentally matches inside a tag name or attribute.
  • Replaces every occurrence across the whole document in one pass.
  • Runs entirely client-side.

Limitations

  • Matching is a literal, case-sensitive substring match, not a regular expression.
  • There's no undo beyond re-pasting your original input, keep a copy before replacing if you're not sure.

Examples

Replacing a value everywhere

Input

<log><entry>error: timeout</entry><entry>info: timeout retry</entry></log>

Output

<log>
  <entry>error: TIMEOUT</entry>
  <entry>info: TIMEOUT retry</entry>
</log>

Every occurrence of "timeout" inside text content is replaced, across both elements.

Best Practices & Notes

Best Practices

  • Use XML Value Finder first to confirm how many occurrences exist and where, before replacing.
  • Pick a search term specific enough to avoid replacing unrelated text that happens to share the same substring.
  • Double-check the result for partial-word matches you didn't intend (e.g. replacing "cat" also matches inside "category").

Developer Notes

Replacement uses `String.split(from).join(to)` per text node rather than a regex, so special regex characters in the search term are treated literally.

XML Value Replacer Use Cases

  • Correcting a recurring typo across a document's data
  • Bulk-updating a placeholder or default value
  • Normalizing inconsistent capitalization or spelling across records

Common Mistakes

  • Expecting regex patterns to work, the search term is matched literally.
  • Not checking for partial-word matches, a short search term can match inside unrelated longer words.

Tips

  • Check XML Value Finder first if you're unsure how many matches to expect.
  • Check the FAQ above if the output doesn't look like what you expected.

References

Frequently Asked Questions