Windows PowerShell Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Appendix C. XPath Quick Reference

Just as regular expressions are the standard way to interact with plain text, XPath is the standard way to interact with XML. Because of that, XPath is something you are likely to run across in your travels. Several cmdlets support XPath queries: Select-Xml, Get-WinEvent, and more. Tables C-1 and C-2 give a quick overview of XPath concepts.

For these examples, consider this sample XML:

<AddressBook>
  <Person contactType="Personal">
    <Name>Lee</Name>
    <Phone type="home">555-1212</Phone>
    <Phone type="work">555-1213</Phone>
  </Person>
  <Person contactType="Business">
    <Name>Ariel</Name>
    <Phone>555-1234</Phone>
  </Person>
</AddressBook>

Table C-1. Navigation and selection

Syntax	Meaning
/	Represents the root of the XML tree. For example: PS > $xml | Select-Xml "/" | Select -Expand Node AddressBook ----------- AddressBook
/Node	Navigates to the node named Node from the root of the XML tree. For example: PS > $xml | Select-Xml "/AddressBook" | Select -Expand Node Person ------ {Lee, Ariel}
/Node/*/Node2	Navigates to the noded named Node2 via Node, allowing any single node in between. For example: PS > $xml | Select-Xml "/AddressBook/*/Name" | Select -Expand Node #text ----- Lee Ariel
//Node	Finds all nodes named Node, anywhere in the XML tree. For example: PS > $xml | Select-Xml "//Phone" | Select -Expand Node type #text ---- ----- home 555-1212 work 555-1213 555-1234
..	Retrieves the parent node of the given node. For example: PS>$xml | Select-Xml "//Phone" | Select -Expand Node type ...