PowerShell Select-Xml

last modified February 15, 2025

In this article, we will cover the Select-Xml cmdlet in PowerShell. This cmdlet searches XML documents for text matching XPath queries. It’s essential for XML parsing and data extraction tasks.

XML basics

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a structured data format. It uses tags to define elements and attributes to store additional information. PowerShell provides several ways to work with XML files. The Select-Xml cmdlet is specifically designed for querying XML content.

Basic Select-Xml usage

The simplest way to use Select-Xml is with a file path and XPath query. The cmdlet returns matching nodes as XML objects. You can access node properties and methods for further processing.

xml1.ps1

Select-Xml -Path “config.xml” -XPath “//book”

This command searches config.xml for all book elements. The double slash in XPath means “search at any level”. Each match is returned as a node object with properties.

Selecting specific attributes

You can extract specific attributes from XML elements using XPath. The @ symbol in XPath refers to attributes. This is useful when you need only certain data from complex XML structures.

xml2.ps1

Select-Xml -Path “data.xml” -XPath “//person/@id”

This command retrieves all id attributes from person elements in data.xml. The output shows attribute values. You can pipe results to other cmdlets for processing.

PS C:> .\xml2.ps1

Node Path Pattern

id data.xml //person/@id id data.xml //person/@id

Using XML content directly

Instead of file paths, you can pass XML content directly to Select-Xml. Use the -Content parameter with a string containing XML. This works well for small XML fragments or dynamically generated XML.

xml3.ps1

$xml = “<books><book id=‘101’>PowerShell Guide</book></books>” Select-Xml -Content $xml -XPath “//book”

This example searches XML content stored in a variable. The command finds the book element and returns its details. No external file is needed.

Working with namespaces

XML documents often use namespaces to avoid element name conflicts. To query these, you must specify namespace mappings. Use the -Namespace parameter with a hashtable of prefix-URI pairs.

xml4.ps1

$ns = @{ns=“http://example.com/books"} Select-Xml -Path “catalog.xml” -XPath “//ns:book” -Namespace $ns

This command searches for book elements in a namespace. The ns prefix maps to the specified URI. Without proper namespace handling, queries would fail to match elements.

Filtering with XPath conditions

XPath supports conditional expressions for filtering nodes. You can check attribute values, element content, or positions. This allows precise targeting of specific XML data.

xml5.ps1

Select-Xml -Path “inventory.xml” -XPath “//item[price > 100]”

This example finds item elements where price is greater than 100. The condition is specified in square brackets. Multiple conditions can be combined with and/or operators.

Accessing node values

To extract text content from nodes, use the Node property of results. Each match object has Node with the actual XML node. You can access its InnerText or other properties.

xml6.ps1

(Select-Xml -Path “notes.xml” -XPath “//title”).Node.InnerText

This command gets the text content of title elements. The parentheses ensure we access Node after query execution. InnerText contains all text within the element.

Combining with other cmdlets

Select-Xml results can be piped to other cmdlets for processing. For example, you might format output or export data. This enables complex XML processing workflows.

xml7.ps1

Select-Xml -Path “employees.xml” -XPath “//employee” | ForEach-Object { $_.Node.name }

This pipeline extracts names from employee elements. ForEach-Object processes each match. The $_ variable represents the current object.

Source

PowerShell documentation

In this article, we have covered the Select-Xml cmdlet in PowerShell.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar, and I am a passionate programmer with extensive programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. To date, I have authored over 1,400 articles and 8 e-books. I possess more than ten years of experience in teaching programming.

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