How to Select Attributes in XML Using XPath

1. Use Select-Xml Cmdlet to Select Attributes in XML in PowerShell
2. Use the SelectNodes Method to Select Attributes in XML in PowerShell
3. Use Get-Content Cmdlet to Select Attributes in XML in PowerShell

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. An XML file is a plain text file having custom tags to define the document’s structure.

It is mostly used to store and share structured information. The content of the XML file looks similar to the HTML file.

This tutorial will introduce different methods for selecting attributes in XML using XPath in PowerShell.

Use Select-Xml Cmdlet to Select Attributes in XML in PowerShell

The Select-Xml cmdlet lets you find text in an XML string or document using XPath.

This is a simple example of an XML file.

<website>
<site name="DelftStack">
<content>
<topic>PowerShell Howtos</topic>
<article>How to convert XML into CSV?</article>
</content>
</site>
<site name="DelftStack">
<content>
<topic>Linux Howtos</topic>
<article>Delete Files Recursively in Linux</article>
</content>
</site>
</website>

The following command searches for the XPath query topic in a new.xml file in the C:\Users\rhntm directory.

Select-Xml -Path C:\Users\rhntm\new.xml -XPath "//topic" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Node

Output:

#text
-----
PowerShell Howtos
Linux Howtos

The -Path parameter specifies the path and file names of the XML files to search.

The -XPath parameter specifies an XPath query to search. The query text is case-sensitive.

Use the SelectNodes Method to Select Attributes in XML in PowerShell

The SelectNodes() method selects a list of nodes matching the XPath expression in an XML file.

The following example selects the node content from a new.xml file.

[xml]$xml = Get-Content 'C:\Users\rhntm\new.xml'
$xml.SelectNodes('//content')

Output:

topic             article
-----             -------
PowerShell Howtos How to convert XML into CSV?
Linux Howtos      Delete Files Recursively in Linux

The [xml] casts the variable as an XML object. The Get-Content cmdlet gets the content of a C:\Users\rhntm\new.xml and saves it in the $xml variable.

To select the specific attribute, you can use the Select-Object cmdlet. For example, the following command selects only the article from a new.xml file.

[xml]$xml = Get-Content 'C:\Users\rhntm\new.xml'
$xml.SelectNodes('//content') | Select-Object article

Output:

article
-------
How to convert XML into CSV?
Delete Files Recursively in Linux

Use Get-Content Cmdlet to Select Attributes in XML in PowerShell

As you have seen above, the Get-Content cmdlet gets the content of an XML file. You can save the content in a variable and cast it as an XML object.

The following example shows how to use Get-Content and select attributes in an XML file.

[xml]$xml = Get-Content 'C:\Users\rhntm\new.xml'
$xml.website.site.content.topic

Output:

PowerShell Howtos
Linux Howtos

This is an easy way to use if you want the text value from the XML file. We hope this helped you with how to select attributes in XML in PowerShell.