How to iterate through XML in Powershell

Question

I have this XML document in a text file    lt  xml version  1 0   gt   lt Objects gt     lt Object Type  System Management Automation PSCustomObject  gt       lt Property Name  DisplayName  Type  System String  gt SQL Server  MSSQLSERVER  lt  Property gt       lt Property Name  ServiceState  Type  Microsoft SqlServer Management Smo Wmi ServiceState  gt Running lt  Property gt     lt  Object gt     lt Object Type  System Management Automation PSCustomObject  gt       lt Property Name  DisplayName  Type  System String  gt SQL Server Agent  MSSQLSERVER  lt  Property gt       lt Property Name  ServiceState  Type  Microsoft SqlServer Management Smo Wmi ServiceState  gt Stopped lt  Property gt     lt  Object gt   lt  Objects gt    I want to iterate through each object and find the DisplayName and ServiceState  How would I do that  I ve tried all kinds of combinations and am struggling to work it out   I m doing this to get the XML into a variable    xml  priorServiceStates   Get-Content  serviceStatePath   where  serviceStatePath is the xml file name shown above  I then thought I could do something like   foreach   obj in  priorServiceStates Objects Object        if  obj ServiceState -eq  Running                  obj DisplayName            And in this example I would want a string outputted with SQL Server  MSSQLSERVER

User · Answer

You can also do it without the  xml  cast    Although xpath is a world unto itself   https   www w3schools com xml xml xpath asp    xml    select-xml -xpath   -path stack xml  node  xml objects object property   Or just this  xpath is case sensitive   Both have the same output    xml    select-xml -xpath  Objects Object Property -path stack xml  node  xml   Name         Type                                                 text ----         ----                                                ----- DisplayName  System String                                       SQL Server  MSSQLSERVER  ServiceState Microsoft SqlServer Management Smo Wmi ServiceState Running DisplayName  System String                                       SQL Server Agent  MSSQLSERVER  ServiceState Microsoft SqlServer Management Smo Wmi ServiceState Stopped

User · Answer

PowerShell has built-in XML and XPath functions  You can use the Select-Xml cmdlet with an XPath query to select nodes from XML object and then  Node   text  to access node value    xml  xml   Get-Content  serviceStatePath  nodes   Select-Xml    Object Property  Name  ServiceState  and Property  Running   Property  Name  DisplayName     xml  nodes   ForEach-Object     Node   text     Or shorter   xml  xml   Get-Content  serviceStatePath Select-Xml    Object Property  Name  ServiceState  and Property  Running   Property  Name  DisplayName     xml           Node   text

[xml] How to iterate through XML in Powershell?

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