Finds text in an XML string or document.

Syntax

Select-XML -Content <string[]> [-Xpath] <string> [-Namespace <hashtable>] [<CommonParameters>]

Select-XML [-Path] <string[]> [-Xpath] <string> [-Namespace <hashtable>] [<CommonParameters>]

Select-XML [-Xml] <XmlNode[]> [-Xpath] <string> [-Namespace <hashtable>] [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Select-XML cmdlet lets you use XPath queries to search for text in XML strings and documents. Enter an XPath query, and use the Content, Path, or Xml parameter to specify the XML to be searched.

Parameters

-Content <string[]>

Specifies a string that contains the XML to search. You can also pipe strings to Select-XML.

Required?	true
Position?	named
Default Value	None
Accept Pipeline Input?	true (ByValue)
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Namespace <hashtable>

Specifies a hash table of the namespaces used in the XML. Use the format @{<namespaceName> = <namespaceValue>}.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	None
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Path <string[]>

Specifies the path and file names of the XML files to search. Wildcards are permitted.

Required?	true
Position?	2
Default Value	None
Accept Pipeline Input?	true (ByPropertyName)
Accept Wildcard Characters?	true

-Xml <XmlNode[]>

Specifies one or more XML nodes. A Path or XML parameter is required in every command.

An XML document will be processed as a collection of XML nodes. If you pipe an XML document to Select-XML, each document node will be searched separately as it comes through the pipeline.

Required?	true
Position?	2
Default Value	None
Accept Pipeline Input?	true (ByValue, ByPropertyName)
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Xpath <string>

Specifies an XPath search query. The query language is case-sensitive. This parameter is required.

Required?	true
Position?	1
Default Value	None
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Verbose, -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -OutBuffer, and -OutVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

Inputs and Outputs

The input type is the type of the objects that you can pipe to the cmdlet. The return type is the type of the objects that the cmdlet returns.

Inputs

System.String or System.Xml.XmlNode

You can pipe a path or XML node to Select-XML.

Outputs

System.Xml.XmlElement or System.Xml.XmlText

Notes

XPath is a standard language that is designed to identify parts of an XML document. For more information about the XPath language, see the "Selection Filters" section of the "Event Selection" topic in the MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) library at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=143608. And, see "XPath Reference" in the MSDN library at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=143609.

Example 1

C:\PS>$path = "$env:windir\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Types.ps1xml"

C:\PS> select-xml -path $path -xpath "/Types/Type/Members/AliasProperty"

This example searches the Types.ps1xml file for child items of the AliasProperty node.

Example 2

C:\PS>select-xml -path test*.xml, help.xml -xpath "/Tests/Test[1]/Name"

This command uses Select-XML to search in several XML files.

Example 3

C:\PS>[xml]$Types = get-content "$env:windir\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Types.ps1xml"

C:\PS> select-xml -xml $Types -xpath "//MethodName"

This example shows how to pipe an XML document to Search-Path.

Example 4

C:\PS>$namespace = @{command="http://schemas.microsoft.com/maml/dev/command/2004/10"; maml="http://schemas.microsoft.com/maml/2004/10"; dev="http://schemas.microsoft.com/maml/dev/2004/10"}

C:\PS> $path = "$env:windir\System32\WindowsPowerShell\V1.0\en-us\*dll-Help.xml"

C:\PS> select-xml -path $path -namespace $namespace -xpath "//command:name"

Text					Node	Path								
----					----	----								
Add-Computer			name	C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\V...
Add-Content			 name	C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\V...
Checkpoint-Computer	 name	C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\V...
Clear-Content			 name	C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\V...
Clear-EventLog			name	C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\V...
...


Description
-----------
This example shows how to use the Select-XML cmdlet to search the Windows PowerShell XML-based cmdlet help files. 

The first command creates a hash table that represents the XML namespace and saves it in the $namespace variable.

The second command saves the path to the help files in the $path variable.

The third command uses Select-Xml to search the XML for cmdlet names by finding Command:Name tags anywhere in the files.

Example 5

C:\PS>select-xml -content $xml -xpath "//edition"

C:\PS> $xml = @"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 <Book>
   <projects>
	 <project name="Book1" date="2009-01-20">
	 <editions>
		<edition language="English">En.Book1.com</edition>
		<edition language="German">Ge.Book1.Com</edition>
		<edition language="French">Fr.Book1.com</edition>
		<edition language="Polish">Pl.Book1.com</edition>
	 </editions>
	 </project>
   </projects>
 </Book>
"@

C:\PS> select-xml -content $xml -xpath "//edition"

Text			Node		Path								
----			----		----								
En.Book1.com	edition	 InputStream							 
Ge.Book1.Com	edition	 InputStream							 
Fr.Book1.com	edition	 InputStream							 
Pl.Book1.com	edition	 InputStream


C:\PS> $xml | select-xml -xpath "//edition"

Text			Node		Path								
----			----		----								
En.Book1.com	edition	 InputStream							 
Ge.Book1.Com	edition	 InputStream							 
Fr.Book1.com	edition	 InputStream							 
Pl.Book1.com	edition	 InputStream


Description
-----------
This example uses the Content parameter of Select-XML to search XML content in a here-string.

The first command saves the here-string in the $xml variable.

The second command uses the Content parameter to specify the XML in the $xml variable. 

The third command is equivalent to the second. It uses a pipeline operator (|) to send the XML in the $xml variable to the Select-XML cmdlet. 

For more information about here-strings, type about_Quoting_Rules.

Select-Xml