Prettify json in powershell 3 - json

Question

Given a standard json string value:
$jsonString = '{ "baz": "quuz", "cow": [ "moo", "cud" ], "foo": "bar" }'
How can I get this to be all pretty with newlines, preferably without brute-force regex?
Simplest method I've found so far is:
$jsonString | ConvertFrom-Json | ConvertTo-Json
However, that seems kinda silly.

Answer 1

Works for me. Parentheses make sure get-content is done before piping. Default depth of convertto-json is 2, which is often too low.
function pjson ($jsonfile) {
(get-content $jsonfile) | convertfrom-json | convertto-json -depth 100 |
set-content $jsonfile
}

Answer 2

If you really don't want to go down the simplest route, which is to use inbuilt PowerShell functions | ConvertFrom-Json | ConvertTo-Json, here is another method, using JSON.net
# http://james.newtonking.com/projects/json-net.aspx
Add-Type -Path "DRIVE:\path\to\Newtonsoft.Json.dll"
$jsonString = '{ "baz": "quuz", "cow": [ "moo", "cud" ], "foo": "bar" }'
[Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject]::Parse($jsonString).ToString()

Answer 3

I put this in my profile
function PrettyPrintJson {
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, ValueFromPipeline = $true)]
$json
)
$json | ConvertFrom-Json | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 100
}
Which works with pipes, and can be auto-completed, so it's at least somewhat less typing:
cat .\file.json | PrettyPrintJson
curl https://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/user_timeline.json | PrettyPrintJson

Answer 4

Adding to #JS2010's answer I added logic to escape out certain characters and clean up my output even further. The parenthesis seems key and -depth is a big one since you can lose details without it, from what I've seen, on depth that goes beyond the default of 5, I believe it is.
function Format-Json ($JSON)
{
$PrettifiedJSON = ($JSON) | convertfrom-json | convertto-json -depth 100 | ForEach-Object { [System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Unescape($_) }
$PrettifiedJSON
}

Answer 5

I think what you are looking for is this:
$jsonString = #{
'baz' = 'quuz'
'cow'= "moo, cud"
'foo'= "bar"
}
$jsonString|ConvertTo-Json
it produces this output
{
"baz": "quuz",
"cow": "moo, cud",
"foo": "bar"
}
Added note
You could also array your cow values to "prettify" it a bit more:
$jsonString = #{
'baz' = 'quuz'
'cow'= #("moo"; "cud")
'foo'= "bar"
}
output:
{
"baz": "quuz",
"cow": [
"moo",
"cud"
],
"foo": "bar"
}