After 5 years, the cmdlet I had pasted in the original answer has undergone so many updates that it has become completely outdated. Therefore I have replaced the code and the ReadMe with a link to the latest version.
Besides the support for more object types and better formatting, it now outputs an expression (ScriptBlock
), which default display type is still a String
and allows for direct invocation using the call operator &
:
$Object = &($Object | ConverTo-Expression)
The ConvertTo-Expression
cmdlet can be download from PowerShell Gallery using the command:
Install-Script -Name ConvertTo-Expression
The full ReadMe (and source code) is available from GitHub:
https://github.com/iRon7/ConvertTo-Expression
Installation
After downloading (Install-Script -Name ConvertTo-Expression
), the script can simply be invoked by dot sourcing:
. .ConvertTo-Expression.ps1
You might also consider to convert the script to a PowerShell module by renaming it to a PowerShell module (.psm1
) file and moving it to a one of the module folders defined in $env:PSModulePath
. For more details see: How to Write a PowerShell Script Module.
Answer
Below are some possible options to serialize the specific example (assigned to $Craig
) in the question:
ConvertTo-Expression $Craig
@{
parameters =
@{
name = 'parameter 0'
default = 1
values =
1,
2,
3,
4
},
@{
name = 'parameter 1'
default = 'A'
values =
'A',
'B',
'C'
}
name = 'report 0'
}
To limit the tree view expansion:
(Expand -0
will output a single line and Expand -1
will remove also the unnecessary spaces)
ConvertTo-Expression $Craig -expand 3
@{
parameters =
@{name = 'parameter 0'; default = 1; values = 1, 2, 3, 4},
@{name = 'parameter 1'; default = 'A'; values = 'A', 'B', 'C'}
name = 'report 0'
}
Preserving the explicit types (strong typed):
ConvertTo-Expression $Craig -expand 3 -Strong
[hashtable]@{
parameters = [array](
[hashtable]@{name = [string]'parameter 0'; default = [int]1; values = [array]([int]1, [int]2, [int]3, [int]4)},
[hashtable]@{name = [string]'parameter 1'; default = [string]'A'; values = [array]([string]'A', [string]'B', [string]'C')}
)
name = [string]'report 0'
}
(Note: As per PowerShell design, HashTables are not in order, but if required you might use the [Ordered]
type instead.)