Read XML with PowerShell

I have found that the ability to define and read an xml file with PowerShell is very useful. Often times I will generate XML from an Excel spreadsheet to drive a PowerShell script.

For example, what if we wanted to read this xml file using PowerShell? Let’s say it was in a file named “sample.xml”

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <albums>   <album name="Time Out">     <artist>The Dave Brubeck Quartet</artist>     <released>12/14/1959</released>   </album>   <album name="Red Headed Stranger">     <artist>Willie Nelson</artist>     <released>5/1/1975</released>   </album> </albums>

Here’s how I access all the attributes and nodes.

# path/file name of xml file     $xmlfile = "sample.xml";         # Read an xml file     [xml]$musiccatalog = get-content $xmlfile;     foreach ($album in $musiccatalog.albums.album) {         # Display what we've read         write-host;         write-host -f green "   Album Name: " -nonewline;         write-host -f yellow $album.name;         write-host -f green "   Artist    : " -nonewline;         write-host -f yellow $album.artist;         write-host -f green "   Released  : " -nonewline;         write-host -f yellow $album.released;     }

And here is the output

Album Name: Time Out    Artist    : The Dave Brubeck Quartet    Released  : 12/14/1959    Album Name: Red Headed Stranger    Artist    : Willie Nelson    Released  : 5/1/1975