yq/pkg/yqlib/doc/usage/xml.md

# XML

Encode and decode to and from XML. Whitespace is not conserved for round trips - but the order of the fields are.

As yaml does not have the concept of attributes, xml attributes are converted to regular fields with a prefix to prevent clobbering. This defaults to "+", use the `--xml-attribute-prefix` to change.

Consecutive xml nodes with the same name are assumed to be arrays.

All values in XML are assumed to be strings - but you can use `from_yaml` to parse them into their correct types:


```
yq e -p=xml '.myNumberField |= from_yaml' my.xml
```


XML nodes that have attributes then plain content, e.g:

```xml
<cat name="tiger">meow</cat>
```

The content of the node will be set as a field in the map with the key "+content". Use the `--xml-content-name` flag to change this.

## Round trip: with comments
A best effort is made, but comment positions and white space are not preserved perfectly.

Given a sample.xml file of:
```xml

<!-- before cat -->
<cat>
	<!-- in cat before -->
	<x>3<!-- multi
line comment 
for x --></x>
	<!-- before y -->
	<y>
		<!-- in y before -->
		<d><!-- in d before -->z<!-- in d after --></d>
		
		<!-- in y after -->
	</y>
	<!-- in_cat_after -->
</cat>
<!-- after cat -->

```
then
```bash
yq e -p=xml '.' sample.xml
```
will output
```yaml
# before cat
cat:
  # in cat before
  x: "3" # multi
  # line comment 
  # for x
  y:
    # in y before
    # in d before
    d: z # in d after
    # in y after
  # before y   in_cat_after
# after cat
```