Python : Remove an element but not its children from xml?

Question

I want to remove element but not its children. I tried with this code, but my code remove its children also.

code

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

tree = ET.parse('test.xml')
root = tree.getroot()

for item in root.findall('item'):
    root.remove(item)

print(ET.tostring(root))
>>> <root>
    </root>

test.xml

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<root>
    <item>
        <data>
            <number>01</number>
            <step>one</step>
        </data>
    </item>
</root>

expected outcome

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<root>
    <data>
        <number>01</number>
        <step>one</step>
    </data>
</root>

Answer 1

You should move all children of item to root before removing

for item in root.findall('item'):
    for child in item:
        root.append(child)
    root.remove(item)

print(ET.tostring(root))

the code results in

<root>
   <data>
       <number>01</number>
       <step>one</step>
   </data>
</root>