ConvertFrom-Json
Converts a JSON-formatted string to a custom object or a hash table.
Syntax
ConvertFrom-Json
[-InputObject] <String>
[-AsHashtable]
[-Depth <Int32>]
[-NoEnumerate]
[<CommonParameters>]
Description
The ConvertFrom-Json
cmdlet converts a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) formatted string to a
custom PSObject or Hashtable object that has a property for each field in the JSON string.
JSON is commonly used by web sites to provide a textual representation of objects. The cmdlet adds
the properties to the new object as it processes each line of the JSON string.
The JSON standard allows duplicate key names, which are prohibited in PSObject and Hashtable types. For example, if the JSON string contains duplicate keys, only the last key is used by this cmdlet. See other examples below.
To generate a JSON string from any object, use the ConvertTo-Json
cmdlet.
This cmdlet was introduced in PowerShell 3.0.
Note
Beginning with PowerShell 6, the cmdlet supports JSON with comments. JSON comments start with two
forward slashes (//
) characters. JSON comments aren't captured in the objects output by the
cmdlet. Prior to PowerShell 6, ConvertFrom-Json
would return an error when it encountered a JSON
comment.
Examples
Example 1: Convert a DateTime object to a JSON object
This command uses the ConvertTo-Json
and ConvertFrom-Json
cmdlets to convert a DateTime
object from the Get-Date
cmdlet to a JSON object then to a PSCustomObject.
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
The example uses the Select-Object
cmdlet to get all of the properties of the DateTime
object. It uses the ConvertTo-Json
cmdlet to convert the DateTime object to a string
formatted as a JSON object and the ConvertFrom-Json
cmdlet to convert the JSON-formatted string
to a PSCustomObject object.
Example 2: Get JSON strings from a web service and convert them to PowerShell objects
This command uses the Invoke-WebRequest
cmdlet to get JSON strings from a web service
and then it uses the ConvertFrom-Json
cmdlet to convert JSON content to objects
that can be managed in PowerShell.
# Ensures that Invoke-WebRequest uses TLS 1.2
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
$j = Invoke-WebRequest 'https://api.github.com/repos/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues' | ConvertFrom-Json
You can also use the Invoke-RestMethod
cmdlet, which automatically converts JSON content to
objects.
Example 3: Convert a JSON string to a custom object
This example shows how to use the ConvertFrom-Json
cmdlet to convert a JSON file to a PowerShell
custom object.
Get-Content -Raw JsonFile.JSON | ConvertFrom-Json
The command uses Get-Content cmdlet to get the strings in a JSON file. The Raw parameter
returns the whole file as a single JSON object. Then it uses the pipeline operator to send the
delimited string to the ConvertFrom-Json
cmdlet, which converts it to a custom object.
Example 4: Convert a JSON string to a hash table
This command shows an example where the -AsHashtable
switch can overcome limitations of the
command.
'{ "key":"value1", "Key":"value2" }' | ConvertFrom-Json -AsHashtable
The JSON string contains two key value pairs with keys that differ only in casing. Without the switch, the command would have thrown an error.
Example 5: Round-trip a single element array
This command shows an example where the -NoEnumerate
switch is used to round-trip a single element
JSON array.
Write-Output "With -NoEnumerate: $('[1]' | ConvertFrom-Json -NoEnumerate | ConvertTo-Json -Compress)"
Write-Output "Without -NoEnumerate: $('[1]' | ConvertFrom-Json | ConvertTo-Json -Compress)"
With -NoEnumerate: [1]
Without -NoEnumerate: 1
The JSON string contains an array with a single element. Without the switch, converting the JSON to
a PSObject and then converting it back with the ConvertTo-Json
command results in a single
integer.
Parameters
-AsHashtable
Converts the JSON to a hash table object. This switch was introduced in PowerShell 6.0. There are
several scenarios where it can overcome some limitations of the ConvertFrom-Json
cmdlet.
- Without this switch, when two or more keys in a JSON object are case-insensitively identical, they are treated as identical keys. In that case, only the last of those case-insensitively identical keys is included in the converted object.
- Without this switch, the cmdlet throws an error whenever the JSON contains a key that's an empty
string. PSCustomObject can't have property names that are empty strings. For example, this can
occur in
project.lock.json
files. - Hash tables can be processed faster for certain data structures.
Type: | SwitchParameter |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | False |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-Depth
Gets or sets the maximum depth the JSON input is allowed to have. The default is 1024.
This parameter was introduced in PowerShell 6.2.
Type: | Int32 |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | None |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-InputObject
Specifies the JSON strings to convert to JSON objects. Enter a variable that contains the string,
or type a command or expression that gets the string. You can also pipe a string to
ConvertFrom-Json
.
The InputObject parameter is required, but its value can be an empty string. When the input
object is an empty string, ConvertFrom-Json
doesn't generate any output. The InputObject
value can't be $null
.
Type: | String |
Position: | 0 |
Default value: | None |
Required: | True |
Accept pipeline input: | True |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-NoEnumerate
Specifies that output isn't enumerated.
Setting this parameter causes arrays to be sent as a single object instead of sending every element
separately. This guarantees that JSON can be round-tripped via ConvertTo-Json
.
Type: | SwitchParameter |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | False |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
Inputs
You can pipe a JSON string to ConvertFrom-Json
.
Outputs
PSCustomObject
Notes
This cmdlet is implemented using Newtonsoft Json.NET.
Beginning in PowerShell 6, ConvertTo-Json
attempts to convert strings formatted as timestamps to
DateTime values. The converted value is a [datetime]
instance with a Kind
property set as
follows:
Unspecified
, if there is no time zone information in the input string.Utc
, if the time zone information is a trailingZ
.Local
, if the time zone information is given as a trailing UTC offset like+02:00
. The offset is properly converted to the caller's configured time zone. The default output formatting doesn't indicate the original time zone offset.
The PSObject type maintains the order of the properties as presented in the JSON string. While the key-value pairs are added to the Hashtable in the order presented in the JSON string, Hashtable objects don't maintain that order.