Powershell access XML node with multiple attributes within a forloop

Question

xml sample

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<CUSTOMERS xml:lang="en">
    <CUSTOMER CREATED_DATE="2020-10-16 13:21:09.0" GROUP_ID="" ID="1509999">
        <NAME>
            <TITLE></TITLE>
            <FIRST_NAME>John</FIRST_NAME>
            <LAST_NAME>Smith</LAST_NAME>
        </NAME>
        <GENDER/>
        <DATE_OF_BIRTH/>
        <CONTACT_DETAILS>
            <TELEPHONE MARKETING_OPT_IN="F" TYPE="MOBILE">0123456789</TELEPHONE>
            <EMAIL MARKETING_OPT_IN="F">[email protected]</EMAIL>
        </CONTACT_DETAILS>
        <ATTRIBUTE NAME="theCompany-News and offers on theCompany Womenswear_OPT_EMAIL">T</ATTRIBUTE>
    <ATTRIBUTE NAME="Email Soft Opt In_OPT_EMAIL">F</ATTRIBUTE>
        <ATTRIBUTE NAME="REGISTERED_ON_WEBSITE">T</ATTRIBUTE>
    </CUSTOMER>
   </CUSTOMERS>

I have inherited an Azure Powershell function which builds a list of values from XML file. I need to add some code to access this value:

<ATTRIBUTE NAME="Email Soft Opt In_OPT_EMAIL">F</ATTRIBUTE>

This is the Powershell Code I have so far

[xml]$xml = Get-Content C:\Users\Jason2\Desktop\XMLfolder\theSample.xml
$xml
$CustomerListFull = @()

foreach ($customer in $xml.CUSTOMERS.CUSTOMER) 
{           $BuildList = New-Object -TypeName psobject
            $BuildList | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name TITLE -Value $customer.NAME.TITLE.Trim()
            $BuildList | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name FIRSTNAME -Value $customer.NAME.FIRST_NAME.Trim()
        $BuildList | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name LASTNAME -Value $customer.NAME.LAST_NAME.Trim()
            $BuildList | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name EMAILCONSENT -Value "0"
            $BuildList | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name EMAILSOFTOPTIN -Value "2"

    if ($customer.ATTRIBUTE.NAME -like "*OPT_EMAIL") {
                foreach ($value in $customer.ATTRIBUTE.NAME) {
                    
                        if ($value -match "theCompany-News and offers on theCompany Womenswear_OPT_EMAIL") {
                            $BuildList.EMAILCONSENT = "1"
                        }
                        if ($value -match "Email Soft Opt In_OPT_EMAIL") {
                        $BuildList.EMAILSOFTOPTIN = $customer.ATTRIBUTE.'#text'
                        }
               }
            }                 

$CustomerListFull += $BuildList
}
$CustomerListFull

which is incorrectly giving me all three Attribute Name values (into field EMAILSOFTOPTIN)

TITLE          :
FIRSTNAME      : John
LASTNAME       : Smith
EMAILCONSENT   : 1
EMAILSOFTOPTIN : {T, F, T}

I have tried several things to try and access the value, user marsze yesterday showed me nodes which is great but I can't seem to make it work in my forloop, I'm failing miserably.

$BuildList.EMAILSOFTOPTIN = $customer.SelectNodes("//*[local-name()='ATTRIBUTE'][@NAME='Email Soft Opt In_OPT_EMAIL']").InnerText

$BuildList.EMAILSOFTOPTIN = $customer.[ATTRIBUTE].[NAME='Email Soft Opt In_OPT_EMAIL').InnerText

$nodes = $xml.SelectNodes("//*[local-name()='ATTRIBUTE'][@NAME='Email Soft Opt In_OPT_EMAIL']")
$BuildList.EMAILSOFTOPTIN = $nodes.InnerText

Please help to put me out of my misery

marsze · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-16 10:39:19Z

1

There are multiple tiny flaws in your code.

1.)

$customer.ATTRIBUTE.NAME -like "*OPT_EMAIL"

If the left operand is a collection, the result is also a collection, namely of all the items that return true for the operation, in this case all values of NAME that match *OPT_EMAIL". Also, this check is unnecessary, because you make another literal comparison later.

2.)

$value -match "Email Soft Opt In_OPT_EMAIL"

-Match is probably not a good choice here, because it treats the right value as regex. It will work in this case, but I think you want -eq

3.)

$customer.ATTRIBUTE.'#text'

This will always return a collection of the inner text of all <ATTRIBUTE> nodes of the current customer, namely {T, F, T}

===

Here is my version, with some additional changes, but that is just a matter of personal taste:

[xml]$xml = Get-Content "C:\Users\Jason2\Desktop\XMLfolder\theSample.xml"
# you can build the array directly, like this
# because the += operator on arrays is terribly slow
$customerListFull = @(foreach ($customer in $xml.Customers.Customer) {
    # defaults
    $emailConsent = 0 # or $false?
    $emailSoftOptIn = "2"
    # loop attributes
    # the "OPT_EMAIL" check is dispensable here
    foreach ($attribute in $customer.Attribute) {
        # switch is a good replacement for a lot of if's,
        # that basically all do the same check
        switch ($attribute.Name) {
            "theCompany-News and offers on theCompany Womenswear_OPT_EMAIL" {
                $emailConsent = 1 # or $true?
            }
            "Email Soft Opt In_OPT_EMAIL" {
                $emailSoftOptIn = switch ($attribute.InnerText.Trim()) {
                    "F" { 0 }
                    "T" { 1 }
                }
                ### OR ###
                $emailSoftOptIn = @{F = 0; T = 1}[$attribute.InnerText.Trim()]
            }
        }
    }
    # Create and output the object directly.
    # This is an easier way to construct an object,
    # which also keeps the property order
    [PSCustomObject]@{
        Title = $customer.Name.Title.Trim()
        FirstName = $customer.Name.First_Name.Trim()
        LastName = $customer.Name.Last_Name.Trim()
        EmailConsent = $emailConsent
        EmailSoftOptIn = $emailSoftOptIn
    }
    ### OR ###
    # use [ordered]
    New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property ([ordered]@{
        Title = $customer.Name.Title.Trim()
        FirstName = $customer.Name.First_Name.Trim()
        LastName = $customer.Name.Last_Name.Trim()
        EmailConsent = $emailConsent
        EmailSoftOptIn = $emailSoftOptIn
    })
})

edited Oct 16, 2020 at 10:39

answered Oct 16, 2020 at 9:35

marsze

17.5k6 gold badges59 silver badges67 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

7 Comments

Roger Clerkwell Over a year ago

wow thank you marsze this is a real education for me, I'm going to take a look now and digest, looks great

marsze Over a year ago

@RogerClerkwell Thanks, yes I took the freedom to make these additional changes to give you a chance to learn and improve. Also, please note how proper indentation and casing help with readability a lot, and prevent mistakes.

Roger Clerkwell Over a year ago

Hi marsze, works really well, a couple of things I want to transform the 'F' and 'T' to 0 and 1, if I add IF like below to the script is this good practise or I should do another way.

Roger Clerkwell Over a year ago

"Email Soft Opt In_OPT_EMAIL" { if($attribute.InnerText.Trim() -eq 'F') {$emailSoftOptIn = "0" } if($attribute.InnerText.Trim() -eq 'T') {$emailSoftOptIn = "1" }

Roger Clerkwell Over a year ago

simply superb answers with examples, it works perfectly. many thanks marsze I have learnt a lot from this post today

|

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Powershell access XML node with multiple attributes within a forloop

1 Answer 1

7 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

7 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related