How to parse XML in Powershell with Select-Xml and Xpath?

Question

obvious output for this example would be the date and time.

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In the context of iterating over an xml document, how is this document correctly cast or converted to xml in Powershell dotnet core on Linux?

PS /home/nicholas/flwor> 
PS /home/nicholas/flwor> Select-Xml -Xml (Get-Date | ConvertTo-Xml) -XPath "/Objects/Object"

Node   Path        Pattern
----   ----        -------
Object InputStream /Objects/Object

PS /home/nicholas/flwor> 
PS /home/nicholas/flwor> (Get-Date | ConvertTo-Xml).OuterXml                                
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><Objects><Object Type="System.DateTime">12/10/2020 5:12:45 AM</Object></Objects>
PS /home/nicholas/flwor> 

updated with the simplest possible example.

So, this example is xml but: how is it parsed or queried with xpath?

alternate solution given in IRC:

PS /home/nicholas/flwor> 
PS /home/nicholas/flwor> $date.SelectSingleNode('/Objects/Object').'#text'
12/10/2020 5:07:04 AM
PS /home/nicholas/flwor> 

no doubt that's doable with Select-Xml and Xpath.

Rawalpindi

Use quotes: $serviceStatePath = './serviceState.xml' or use a named (-Path) parameter. – Collectivism

Answer 1

if awkward, this works:

PS /home/nicholas/flwor> 
PS /home/nicholas/flwor> Select-Xml -Xml (Get-Date | ConvertTo-Xml) -XPath "/Objects/Object" |  Select-Object -ExpandProperty Node

Type            #text
----            -----
System.DateTime 12/10/2020 5:23:39 AM

PS /home/nicholas/flwor> 

the help files had a similar example.

Rawalpindi

Returns date value directly: (Get-Date | ConvertTo-Xml | Select-Xml "/Objects/Object").Node.InnerText – Grain