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PowerShell – Convert XML to CSV File

Using the Export-CSV and ConvertTo-CSV cmdlets in PowerShell, you can convert XML file to CSV file.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a markup language similar to HTML, where you can define your own tags to store and transport data. It’s human-readable and machine-readable and can be easily parsed.

CSV (Comma-Separated Values) file stores the data in a tabular format where each value is separated by a delimiter comma, semi-column, or any other characters.

In this article, we will discuss how to convert XML to CSV file using Export-CSV and ConvertTo-CSV cmdlets.

PowerShell – XML to CSV using Export-CSV

Export-CSV cmdlet in PowerShell creates a CSV file from the object’s input to it and exports the CSV file to the specified location.

Let’s consider an example to convert XML to CSV in PowerShell.

Get-Content -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\PowerShell_Books.xml

In the above PowerShell script, we have used the Get-Content cmdlet to read the XML file content and display it.

The output of the above command is:

PS D:\> Get-Content -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\PowerShell_Books.xml                                                                                                            <?xml version="1.0"?>
<catalog>
   <book id="b101">
      <author>ShellGeek</author>
      <title>PowerShell Guide</title>
      <genre>Programming</genre>
      <price>50</price>
      <publish_date>2022-01-01</publish_date>
      <description>Master the PowerShell in 30 days</description>
   </book>
   <book id="b102">
      <author>Microsoft</author>
      <title>Windows PowerShell</title>
      <genre>Programming</genre>
      <price>25</price>
      <publish_date>2021-12-16</publish_date>
      <description>Step by Step Windows PowerShell</description>
   </book>


</catalog>
PS D:\>    

Stores the XML file content in a variable $xmlFile. In the XML, every element in the XML file is an element node.

To convert the XML file to a CSV file, we need to traverse it to XML child nodes and pass it as input to the Export-CSV command in PowerShell.

Export-CSV command takes XML nodes as input to create a CSV file from the XML child nodes and export them to a CSV file with a delimiter comma.

$xmlFile = Get-Content -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\PowerShell_Books.xml  
                                                                                               $xmlFile.catalog.ChildNodes | Export-Csv -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\PowerShell_Books.csv -NoTypeInformation -Delimiter:","  

The output of the above PowerShell script for XML output to a CSV file using the Export-CSV cmdlet is:

PowerShell XML to CSV file
PowerShell XML to CSV file

In the above output, it exports XML to a CSV file, and using the Get-Content command, we read the CSV file and display information on the PowerShell terminal.

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PowerShell XML ConvertTo-CSV file

Using the ConvertTo-CSV cmdlet in PowerShell, you can convert the XML file to a CSV file.

We will refer to the PowerShell_Books.xml file used in the above example. This XML file contains information about Books.

To convert XML to CSV file for Books XML nodes, use the ConvertTo-CSV command as given below.

$xmlFile = Get-Content -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\PowerShell_Books.xml

$xmlFile.catalog.ChildNodes | ConvertTo-Csv -NoTypeInformation -Delimiter:"," | Set-Content -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\PowerShell_Books_2.csv  

Get-Content -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\PowerShell_Books_2.csv       

In the above PowerShell script, the Get-Content command read the XML file content and stores it in the $xmlFile variable.

This $xmlFile variable contains entire XML nodes and passes them as input to the ConvertTo-CSV command which uses the Delimeter character comma for the CSV file. It then passes the CSV file content to Set-Content to write it on the specified file path.

The output of the above PowerShell script to export XML nodes to CSV using the ConvertTo-CSV command is:

PowerShell XML ConvertTo-CSV
PowerShell XML ConvertTo-CSV

Cool Tip: How to export CSV with date in file name using PowerShell!

Conclusion

I hope the above article on how to convert XML to CSV file using the Export-CSV and ConvertTo-CSV file is helpful to you.

You can find more topics about PowerShell Active Directory commands and PowerShell basics on the ShellGeek home page.

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