ConvertFrom-String

ConvertFrom-String [-InputObject*] <String> [-Delimiter <String>] [-PropertyNames <String[]>] [<CommonParameters>]

ConvertFrom-String [-InputObject*] <String> [-IncludeExtent] [-TemplateContent <String[]>] [-TemplateFile<String[]>] [-UpdateTemplate] [<CommonParameters>]

The ConvertFrom-String cmdlet extracts and parses structured properties from string content. This cmdlet generates an object by parsing text from a traditional text stream. For each string in the pipeline, the cmdlet splits the input by either a delimiter or a parse expression, and then assigns property names to each of the resulting split elements. You can provide these property names; if you do not, they are automatically generated for you.

The cmdlet's default parameter set, ByDelimiter , splits exactly on the regular expression delimiter. It does not perform quote matching or delimiter escaping as the Import-Csv cmdlet does.

The cmdlet's alternate parameter set, TemplateParsing , generates elements from the groups that are captured by a regular expression.

This cmdlet supports two modes: basic delimited parsing, and automatically-generated, example-driven parsing.

Delimited parsing, by default, splits the input at white space, and assigns property names to the resulting groups. You can customize the delimiter by piping the ConvertFrom-String results into one of the Format- cmdlets, or you can use the Delimiter* parameter.

The cmdlet also supports automatically-generated, example-driven parsing based on the FlashExtract, research work by Microsoft Research (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/sumitg/flashextract.html).

Parameters

-Delimiter <String>

Default value is None
Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies a regular expression that identifies the boundary between elements. Elements that are created by the split become properties in the resulting object. The delimiter is ultimately used in a call to System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegularExpression.Split().

-IncludeExtent [<SwitchParameter>]

Default value is False
Accepts pipeline input False

Indicates that this cmdlet includes an extent text property that is removed by default.

-InputObject <String>

This value is required
Default value is None
Accepts pipeline input ByValue

Specifies strings received from the pipeline, or a variable that contains a string object.

-PropertyNames <String[]>

Default value is None
Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies an array of property names to which to assign split values in the resulting object. Every line of text that you split or parse generates elements that represent property values. If the element is the result of a capture group, and that capture group is named (for example, (?<name>) or (?'name') ), then the name of that capture group is assigned to the property.

If you provide any elements in the PropertyName array, those names are assigned to properties that have not yet been named.

If you provide more property names than there are fields, Windows PowerShell ignores the extra property names. If you do not specify enough property names to name all fields, Windows PowerShell automatically assigns numerical property names to any properties that are not named: P1, P2, etc.

-TemplateContent <String[]>

Default value is None
Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies an expression, or an expression saved as a variable, that describes the properties to which this cmdlet assigns strings. The syntax of a template field specification is the following: {[optional-typecast]name(sequence-spec, for example \*):example-value}. An example is {PersonInfo*:{Name:Patti Fuller}.

-TemplateFile <String[]>

Default value is None
Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies a file, as an array, that contains a template for the desired parsing of the string. In the template file, properties and their values are enclosed in brackets, as shown in the following example. If a property, such as the Name property and its associated other properties, appears multiple times, you can add an asterisk (\*) to indicate that this results in multiple records. This avoids extracting multiple properties into a single record.

{Name*:David Chew}

{City:Redmond}, {State:WA}

{Name*:Evan Narvaez} {Name*:Antonio Moreno}

{City:Issaquah}, {State:WA}

-UpdateTemplate [<SwitchParameter>]

Default value is False
Accepts pipeline input False

Indicates that this cmdlet saves the results of a learning algorithm into a comment in the template file. This makes the algorithm learning process faster. To use this parameter, you must also specify a template file with the TemplateFile parameter.

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,OutBuffer, PipelineVariable, and OutVariable.

Inputs

System.String

Examples

Generate an object with default property names:

PS C:\> "Hello World" | ConvertFrom-String

   P1    P2
   --    --
   Hello World

PS C:\>

PS C:\> "Hello World" | ConvertFrom-String | Get-Member

      TypeName: System.Management.Automation.PSCustomObject
   Name        MemberType   Definition
   ----        ----------   ----------
   Equals      Method       bool Equals(System.Object obj)
   GetHashCode Method       int GetHashCode()
   GetType     Method       type GetType()
   ToString    Method       string ToString()
   P1          NoteProperty string P1=Hello
   P2          NoteProperty string P2=World

PS C:\>

This command generates an object with default property names, P1 and P2. The results are P1="Hello" and P2="World". Example 1A: Get to know the generated objectThe command generates one object with properties P1, P2; both properties are of 'string' type, by default.

Generate an object with default property names using a delimiter:
```
PS C:\> "Hello World" | ConvertFrom-String -Delimiter "ll"

   P1 P2
   -- --
   He o World

PS C:\>
```
This command generates an object with P1="He" and P2="o World" properties, by specifying the 'll' in Hello as the delimiter.
Generate an object that contains two named properties:
```
PS C:\> "Hello World" | ConvertFrom-String -PropertyNames FirstWord, SecondWord

   FirstWord SecondWord
   --------- ----------
   Hello     World

PS C:\>
```
This command generates an object that contains two properties: - FirstWord , with value "Hello" - SecondWord , with value "World"
Use an expression as the value of the TemplateContent parameter, save the results in a variable.:
```
   $template = @'
   {Name*:Phoebe Cat}, {phone:425-123-6789}, {age:6}
   {Name*:Lucky Shot}, {phone:(206) 987-4321}, {age:12}
   '@
   $testText = @'
   Phoebe Cat, 425-123-6789, 6
   Lucky Shot, (206) 987-4321, 12
   Elephant Wise, 425-888-7766, 87
   Wild Shrimp, (111)  222-3333, 1
   '@
   $testText  |
       ConvertFrom-String -TemplateContent $template -OutVariable PersonalData |
       Out-Null
   Write-output ("Pet items found: " + ($PersonalData.Count))
   $PersonalData
   Pet items found: 4
   Name          phone           age
   ----          -----           ---
   Phoebe Cat    425-123-6789    6  
   Lucky Shot    (206) 987-4321  12
   Elephant Wise 425-888-7766    87
   Wild Shrimp   (111)  222-3333 1  

C:\ >
```
This command uses an expression as the value of the TemplateContent parameter. The expression is saved in a variable for simplicity. Windows PowerShell understands now that the string that is used on the pipeline to ConvertFrom-String has three properties: - Name - phone - age Each line in the input is evaluated by the sample matches; if the line matches the examples given in the pattern, values are extracted and passed to the output variable defined.

The sample data, $template , provides two different phone formats: - 425-123-6789

- (206) 987-4321

And, two different age formats: - 6

- 12

This implies that phones like (206) 987 4321 will not be recognized, because there's no sample data that matches that pattern (there's no hyphen between the three digit sequence and the four digit sequence). Similar with 3 or more digit ages, they will not be recognized.
Specifying data types to the generated properties:
```
   $template = @'
   {[string]Name*:Phoebe Cat}, {[string]phone:425-123-6789}, {[int]age:6}
   {[string]Name*:Lucky Shot}, {[string]phone:(206) 987-4321}, {[int]age:12}
   '@
   $testText = @'
   Phoebe Cat, 425-123-6789, 6
   Lucky Shot, (206) 987-4321, 12
   Elephant Wise, 425-888-7766, 87
   Wild Shrimp, (111)  222-3333, 1
   '@
   $testText  |
       ConvertFrom-String -TemplateContent $template -OutVariable PersonalData | Out-Null
   Write-output ("Pet items found: " + ($PersonalData.Count))
   $PersonalData
   Pet items found: 4
   Name          phone           age
   ----          -----           ---
   Phoebe Cat    425-123-6789      6
   Lucky Shot    (206) 987-4321   12
   Elephant Wise 425-888-7766     87
   Wild Shrimp   (111)  222-3333   1

C:\ >

C:\ >

   Get-Member shows age is of integer type.
```
This is the same example as No. 4, above; the only differences are in the pattern string that includes a data type for each desired property. Notice the difference in alignment for the age column between both examples. Example 5A: Get to know the generated object

$template = @' {[string]Name*:Phoebe Cat}, {[string]phone:425-123-6789}, {[int]age:6} {[string]Name*:Lucky Shot}, {[string]phone:(206) 987-4321}, {[int]age:12} '@

$testText = @' Phoebe Cat, 425-123-6789, 6 Lucky Shot, (206) 987-4321, 12 Elephant Wise, 425-888-7766, 87 Wild Shrimp, (111) 222-3333, 1 '@

$testText | ConvertFrom-String -TemplateContent $template -OutVariable PersonalData | Out-Null

$PersonalData | Get-Member

TypeName: System.Management.Automation.PSCustomObject

Name MemberType Definition ---- ---------- ---------- Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj) GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode() GetType Method type GetType() ToString Method string ToString() age NoteProperty int age=6 Name NoteProperty string Name=Phoebe Cat phone NoteProperty string phone=425-123-6789

Additional Notes

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. It is attributed to Microsoft Corporation and can be found here.

PowerShell Commands