PowerShell Working with XML Files Accessing an XML File
Example
<!-- file.xml -->
<people>
<person id="101">
<name>Jon Lajoie</name>
<age>22</age>
</person>
<person id="102">
<name>Lord Gaben</name>
<age>65</age>
</person>
<person id="103">
<name>Gordon Freeman</name>
<age>29</age>
</person>
</people>
Loading an XML File
To load an XML file, you can use any of these:
# First Method
$xdoc = New-Object System.Xml.XmlDocument
$file = Resolve-Path(".\file.xml")
$xdoc.load($file)
# Second Method
[xml] $xdoc = Get-Content ".\file.xml"
# Third Method
$xdoc = [xml] (Get-Content ".\file.xml")
Accessing XML as Objects
PS C:\> $xml = [xml](Get-Content file.xml)
PS C:\> $xml
PS C:\> $xml.people
person
--------
{Jon Lajoie, Lord Gaben, Gordon Freeman}
PS C:\> $xml.people.person
id name age
-- ---- ---
101 Jon Lajoie 22
102 Lord Gaben 65
103 Gordon Freeman 29
PS C:\> $xml.people.person[0].name
Jon Lajoie
PS C:\> $xml.people.person[1].age
65
PS C:\> $xml.people.person[2].id
103
Accessing XML with XPath
PS C:\> $xml = [xml](Get-Content file.xml)
PS C:\> $xml
PS C:\> $xml.SelectNodes("//people")
person
--------
{Jon Lajoie, Lord Gaben, Gordon Freeman}
PS C:\> $xml.SelectNodes("//people//person")
id name age
-- ---- ---
101 Jon Lajoie 22
102 Lord Gaben 65
103 Gordon Freeman 29
PS C:\> $xml.SelectSingleNode("people//person[1]//name")
Jon Lajoie
PS C:\> $xml.SelectSingleNode("people//person[2]//age")
65
PS C:\> $xml.SelectSingleNode("people//person[3]//@id")
103
Accessing XML containing namespaces with XPath
PS C:\> [xml]$xml = @"
<ns:people xmlns:ns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<ns:person id="101">
<ns:name>Jon Lajoie</ns:name>
</ns:person>
<ns:person id="102">
<ns:name>Lord Gaben</ns:name>
</ns:person>
<ns:person id="103">
<ns:name>Gordon Freeman</ns:name>
</ns:person>
</ns:people>
"@
PS C:\> $ns = new-object Xml.XmlNamespaceManager $xml.NameTable
PS C:\> $ns.AddNamespace("ns", $xml.DocumentElement.NamespaceURI)
PS C:\> $xml.SelectNodes("//ns:people/ns:person", $ns)
id name
-- ----
101 Jon Lajoie
102 Lord Gaben
103 Gordon Freeman
