How to read the XML file in PowerShell?

Reading the XML file in PowerShell is easy. We have the below XML file for our example,

Example

     
            Forest
            Brown
      

     
            Street
            Multi
      

     
            Forest
            Yellow
    

Suppose this file is saved as Animals.xml to our current path and to read this XML file we will first get the content of the file using Get-Content command and then we will perform type conversion into XML. For example,

Example

[XML]$xmlfile = Get-Content .\Animals.xml

When you check the $xmlfile output,

Output

PS E:\scripts\Powershell> $xmlfile

Animals
-------
Animals

Animals tag is called element here and to get the attributes from the element, we need to use that element, for example,

Example

$xmlfile.Animals

PS E:\scripts\Powershell> $xmlfile.Animals

Animal
------
{Elephant, Dog, Tiger}

Similarly, you can use Animal elements to expand further attributes, and so on. For example,

Example

$xmlfile.Animals.Animal

PS E:\scripts\Powershell> $xmlfile.Animals.Animal

Name     Type Residence Color
----     ---- --------- -----
Elephant Wild Forest    Brown
Dog      Pet  Street    Multi
Tiger    Wild Forest    Yellow

To get a specific attribute like Name, Type, etc.

$xmlfile.Animals.Animal.name

Output

PS E:\scripts\Powershell> $xmlfile.Animals.Animal.name
Elephant
Dog
Tiger

To get the Type of the animal.

$xmlfile.Animals.Animal.Type

Output

PS E:\scripts\Powershell> $xmlfile.Animals.Animal.Type
Wild
Pet
Wild

If you want two or more attributes together in the table format then you can use PowerShell traditional Select or Format-Table command. For example,

Example

$xmlfile.Animals.Animal | Select Name, Type

Output

PS E:\scripts\Powershell> $xmlfile.Animals.Animal | Select Name, Type

Name     Type
----     ----
Elephant Wild
Dog      Pet
Tiger    Wild