Mastering Windows PowerShell Scripting - Third Edition

XML type accelerator

The XML type accelerator ([Xml]) can be used to create instances of XmlDocument, as shown in the following code:

[Xml]$xml = @"
<?xml version="1.0"?> 
<cars> 
    <car type="Saloon"> 
        <colour>Green</colour> 
        <doors>4</doors> 
        <transmission>Automatic</transmission> 
        <engine> 
            <size>2.0</size> 
            <cylinders>4</cylinders> 
        </engine> 
    </car> 
</cars> 
"@ 

Elements and attributes of an XmlDocument object may be accessed as if they were properties. This is a feature of the PowerShell language rather than the .NET object:

PS> $xml.cars.car 
 
type         : Saloon 
colour       : Green 
doors        : 4 
transmission : Automatic 
engine       : engine  

If the document contains more than one car element, each of the instances will be returned.