'PowerShell convert string to json

In PowerShell I have the following string that I read from file and need to convert to json:

"@{Account='User01';Domain='Domain01';Admin='True'}"

In my PS script I try to do this (simplified):

$myStr = "@{Account='User01';Domain='Domain01';Admin='True'}" | ConvertTo-Json
$mystr

the result of myStr is:

"@{Account=\u0027User01\u0027;Domain=\u0027Domain01\u0027;Admin=\u0027True\u0027}"

and not a json I can use. note that the @ sign at the beginning of the string is what I get from the file.

How can I convert it to an object I can use?



Solution 1:[1]

You could try some string manipulation to get it in an expected JSON format, and then use ConvertFrom-Json to convert it to a PSCustomObject.

Simple Example: (simple because this assumes that these characters being replaced will only be delimiters)

# First, clean up the string.
PS C:\> $mystring = "@{Account='User01';Domain='Domain01';Admin='True'}"
PS C:\> $mystring = $mystring -replace "^@", ""
PS C:\> $mystring = $mystring -replace "=", ":"
PS C:\> $mystring = $mystring -replace ";", ","
PS C:\> $mystring
{Account:'User01',Domain:'Domain01',Admin:'True'}

# Afterwards, convert to PSCustomObject.
PS C:\> $myobject = $mystring | ConvertFrom-Json
PS C:\> $myobject

Account                                 Domain                                  Admin
-------                                 ------                                  -----
User01                                  Domain01                                True

This can also be converted back to JSON:

PS C:\> $myobject | ConvertTo-Json
{
    "Account":  "User01",
    "Domain":  "Domain01",
    "Admin":  "True"
}

Solution 2:[2]

The above holds for a Json or PS object with depth of at most 2. If your object contains nested objects, you need to specify the -Depth parameter.

    PS C:\> $json=
    '{
       "level1":[
          {
             "attr1":"value1",
             "level2":[
                {
                   "attr2.1":"value2.1",
                   "attr2.2":"value2.2"
                }
             ]
          }
       ],
       "Comment":"3-level object"
    }'
    
    PS C:\> $psobj = ConvertFrom-Json $json
    
    PS C:\> $psobj
    
    level1                                    Comment       
    ------                                    -------       
    {@{attr1=value1; level2=System.Object[]}} 3-level object
    
    
    
    PS C:\> Convertto-Json $psobj
    {
        "level1":  [
                       {
                           "attr1":  "value1",
                           "level2":  ""
                       }
                   ],
        "Comment":  "3-level object"
    }
    
    PS C:\> Convertto-Json $psobj -Depth 3
    {
        "level1":  [
                       {
                           "attr1":  "value1",
                           "level2":  [
                                          "@{attr2.1=value2.1; attr2.2=value2.2}"
                                      ]
                       }
                   ],
        "Comment":  "3-level object"
    }
    
    PS C:\> Convertto-Json $psobj -Depth 4
    {
        "level1":  [
                       {
                           "attr1":  "value1",
                           "level2":  [
                                          {
                                              "attr2.1":  "value2.1",
                                              "attr2.2":  "value2.2"
                                          }
                                      ]
                       }
                   ],
        "Comment":  "3-level object"
    }

As you might guess, the default value for Depth is 2

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1
Solution 2