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PowerShell Commands

ConvertTo-Json

ConvertTo-Json [-InputObject*] <Object> [-Compress] [-Depth <Int32>] [<CommonParameters>]

The ConvertTo-Json cmdlet converts any object to a string in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format. The properties are converted to field names, the field values are converted to property values, and the methods are removed.

You can then use the ConvertFrom-Json cmdlet to convert a JSON-formatted string to a JSON object, which is easily managed in Windows PowerShell.

Many web sites use JSON instead of XML to serialize data for communication between servers and web-based apps.

This cmdlet was introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0.

Parameters

-Compress [<SwitchParameter>]

  • Default value is False
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Omits white space and indented formatting in the output string.

-Depth <Int32>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies how many levels of contained objects are included in the JSON representation. The default value is 2.

-InputObject <Object>

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

Specifies the objects to convert to JSON format. Enter a variable that contains the objects, or type a command or expression that gets the objects. You can also pipe an object to ConvertTo-Json .

The InputObject parameter is required, but its value can be null ($Null) or an empty string. When the input object is $Null, ConvertTo-Json does not generate any output. When the input object is an empty string, ConvertTo-Json returns an empty string.

<CommonParameters>

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

Inputs
System.Object
You can pipe any object to ConvertTo-Json .
Outputs
System.String
Examples
  1. Convert a Calendar object to a JSON string: 
    PS C:\> (Get-UICulture).Calendar | ConvertTo-Json
{

       "MinSupportedDateTime":  "\/Date(-62135568000000)\/", 
       "MaxSupportedDateTime":  "\/Date(253402300799999)\/", 
       "AlgorithmType":  1, 
       "CalendarType":  1, 
       "Eras":  [
                    1
                ], 
       "TwoDigitYearMax":  2029, 
       "IsReadOnly":  false
   }

    This command uses the ConvertTo-Json cmdlet to convert a GregorianCalendar object to a JSON-formatted string.

  2. Compress the JSON output: 
    PS C:\> @{Account="User01";Domain="Domain01";Admin="True"} | ConvertTo-Json -Compress
{"Admin":"True","Account":"User01","Domain":"Domain01"}

    This command shows the effect of using the Compress parameter of ConvertTo-Json . The compression affects only the appearance of the string, not its validity.

  3. Convert an object to a JSON string and JSON object: 
    PS C:\> Get-Date | Select-Object -Property * | ConvertTo-Json
{

       "DisplayHint":  2,  
       "DateTime":  "Friday, January 13, 2012 8:06:16 PM",
       "Date":  "\/Date(1326441600000)\/", 
       "Day":  13,  
       "DayOfWeek":  5,  
       "DayOfYear":  13,  
       "Hour":  20,  
       "Kind":  2,  
       "Millisecond":  221, 
       "Minute":  6, 
       "Month":  1,  
       "Second":  16, 
       "Ticks":  634620819762218083, 
       "TimeOfDay":  {
                         "Ticks":  723762218083, 
                         "Days":  0,  
                         "Hours":  20, 
                         "Milliseconds":  221, 
                         "Minutes":  6, 
                         "Seconds":  16, 
                         "TotalDays":  0.83768775241087956, 
                         "TotalHours":  20.104506057861109, 
                         "TotalMilliseconds":  72376221.8083, 
                         "TotalMinutes":  1206.2703634716668, 
                         "TotalSeconds":  72376.22180829999
                     },
       "Year":  2012
   } C:\>Get-Date | Select-Object -Property * | ConvertTo-Json | ConvertFrom-Json
   DisplayHint : 2
   DateTime    : Friday, January 13, 2012 8:06:31 PM
   Date        : 1/13/2012 8:00:00 AM
   Day         : 13
   DayOfWeek   : 5
   DayOfYear   : 13
   Hour        : 20
   Kind        : 2
   Millisecond : 400
   Minute      : 6
   Month       : 1
   Second      : 31
   Ticks       : 634620819914009002
   TimeOfDay   : @{Ticks=723914009002; Days=0; Hours=20; Milliseconds=400; 
    Minutes=6; Seconds=31; TotalDays=0.83786343634490734; 
                  TotalHours=20.108722472277776; TotalMilliseconds=72391400.900200009; 
    TotalMinutes=1206.5233483366667; 
                 TotalSeconds=72391.4009002}
   Year        : 2012

    This command shows how to use the ConvertTo-Json and ConvertFrom-Json cmdlets to convert an object to a JSON string and a JSON object.

    The first command uses the ConvertTo-Json cmdlet to convert a System.DateTime object from the Get-Date cmdlet to a JSON-formatted string. The command uses the Select-Object cmdlet to get all ( ) of the properties of the DateTime * object. The output shows the JSON string that ConvertTo-Json returned.

    The second command uses ConvertFrom-Json to convert the JSON string to a JSON object.

  4. Convert a PowerShell Help file to JSON format: 
    PS C:\> $JsonSecurityHelp = Get-Content $Pshome\Modules\Microsoft.PowerShell.Security\en-US\Microsoft.PowerShell.Security.dll-Help.xml | ConvertTo-Json

    This command uses the ConvertTo-Json cmdlet to convert a Windows PowerShell Help file from XML format to JSON format. You can use a command like this to use the Help topic content in a web service application.

Additional Notes
 The ConvertTo-Json * cmdlet is implemented by using the JavaScriptSerializer 
 classhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.script.serialization.javascriptserializer(VS.100).aspx 
 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.script.serialization.javascriptserializer(VS.100).aspx).

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