how can I convert normal string to json object in Powershell - json

Question

I have this table in normal string format ,
I want to convert this string to json object in PowerShell. ConvertTo-Json is not giving in correct format.

Answer 1

The answer depends somewhat on the true format of the table. If I assume this is tab delimited and that each column name doesn't have spaces I could pull it out something like:
$String =
#"
test test2 first others versions
------------------------------------------
Decimal 1 2 5 p
Decimal 1 3 8 p
Decimal 1 2 4 i
Decimal 2 2 6 p
Decimal 5 4 6 k
Decimal 2 5 2 p
"#
$String = $String -split "\r?\n"
$Headers = $String[0] -split "\s"
$Objects =
$String[2..($String.Count -1)] |
ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $Headers -Delimiter "`t" |
ConvertTo-Json
Above, -split the big string into lines, then look at the header line and -split it to get an array of column headers. Now skipping the first 2 elements in the $String array convert the remaining lines to objects using ConvertFrom-Csv and using the previously extracted $Headers array.
Note: This segment may also work and may be preferred for readability:
$Objects =
$String |
Select-Object -Skip 2 |
ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $Headers -Delimiter "`t" |
ConvertTo-Json
Note: Splitting on white space ( "\s" ) may cause issues if the field data may have whitespace itself.
However, given the ambiguity, a more certain approach might be more reliable, I would use the known start and end positions of the table's fields to do this.
Continuing with the above example string:
$String =
#"
test test2 first others versions
------------------------------------------
Decimal 1 2 5 p
Decimal 1 3 8 p
Decimal 1 2 4 i
Decimal 2 2 6 p
Decimal 5 4 6 k
Decimal 2 5 2 p
"#
$String = $String -Split "\r?\n"
$String |
Select-Object -Skip 2 |
ForEach-Object{
[PSCustomObject]#{
test = $_.SubString(0,7)
test2 = $_.SubString(8,1)
first = $_.SubString(14,1)
others = $_.SubString(20,1)
versions = $_.SubString(26,1)
}
}
Again, these positions may change depending if the columns are separated by spaces or tabs. My sample data may not be the same as yours and you may need to play with those positions. That said this is a very useful technique for deal with output from traditional console applications, very much worth knowing...
Note: Thanks Neko Nekoru; I added '?' to the RegEx to accommodate both Unix & Windows line ending styles.