Issue reading from XML file with Powershell

Question

I need to get the following value from the XML file.

<container>
  <name>ServerName</name>
  <type>Node1</type>
  <applications>
    <application Name="App1">
      <Attribute1>A</Attribute1>
      <Attribute2>B</Attribute2>
    </application>
    <application Name="App2">
      <Attribute1>C</Attribute1>
      <Attribute2>D</Attribute2>
    </application>
    <application Name="App3">
      <Attribute1>E</Attribute1>
      <Attribute2>F</Attribute2>
    </application>
  </applications>
</container>

In order to get App3 Attribute1 I found the following XPATH expression: /container/applications/application[@Name='App3']/Attribute1

The problem is that I don't know how to use the above xpath expression in Powershell.

Thanks!

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-16 15:43:48Z

1

One way to get Attribute1 from App3:

 Select-Xml -Content $Xml -XPath "//applications/application[@Name='App3']/Attribute1" | foreach {$_.node.InnerXML}

output:

E

edited Jan 16, 2020 at 15:43

mklement0

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answered Jan 16, 2020 at 14:26

Jack Fleeting

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1 Comment

mklement0 Over a year ago

Nicely done; note that, as an alternative to passing the XML string via -Content, Select-Xml can accept file paths directly, via parameters -Path and -LiteralPath.

Jawad · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-16 14:42:41Z

0

You can use the [xml] document to search for the required element in xml.

[xml]$xml = Get-Content C:\Temp\new.txt
$value = $xml.SelectSingleNode("//container//application[@Name='App3']/Attribute1").InnerText
# $value => E

XPath that you use inside SelectSingleNode can be set up based on your need. //container//application[@Name='App3']/Attribute1 means

Look for the tag container 'anywhere' in the document
Look for application anywhere under the container tag
Look for Attribute for application that equals App3
Under that specific Attribute tag, (if there is one), find Attribute1 and get the innerText.

You can also write the above statement in this way as well. This means that find application tag "anywhere" in the document but it has to have Name attribute equals to App3.

$value = $xml.SelectSingleNode("//application[@Name='App3']/Attribute1").InnerText

answered Jan 16, 2020 at 14:42

Jawad

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3 Comments

mklement0 Over a year ago

Nice, though I would use the query from the question as-is in the first snippet, given that it is an absolute path to the target element (no need for //). With small files it won't matter, but it's more efficient to use Get-Content -Raw to read the entire file as a single string when casting to [xml]. @Eudin, note that the Select-Xml solution in the other answer is an equally valid one and simplifies the file-parsing part.

Jawad Over a year ago

@mklement0 regarding the parsing, file-parsing is still required for the other solution as well (you have to pass in $xml). Also, given that the html provided could be within a document, I suggested the approach of // so it covers that scenario

mklement0 Over a year ago

@Jawad: In the specific solution, yes, the XML text is passed as a string, but Select-Xml can accept file paths directly (-Path, -LiteralPath parameters). It's fine if you don't want to assume that container is the root element of the XML document (though the question suggests that the sample is the full document), but then I suggest using //container/applications/application[@Name='App3']/Attribute1. The // approach is covered by your 2nd snippet.

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