ConvertTo-Json

ConvertTo-Json
    [-InputObject] <Object>
    [-Depth <Int32>]
    [-Compress]
    [-EnumsAsStrings]
    [-AsArray]
    [-EscapeHandling <StringEscapeHandling>]
    [<CommonParameters>]

The ConvertTo-Json cmdlet converts any .NET object to a string in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format. The properties are converted to field names, the field values are converted to property values, and the methods are removed.

You can then use the ConvertFrom-Json cmdlet to convert a JSON-formatted string to a JSON object, which is easily managed in PowerShell.

Many web sites use JSON instead of XML to serialize data for communication between servers and web-based apps.

As of PowerShell 7.1, ConvertTo-Json emits a warning if the depth of the input object exceeds the depth specified for the command. This prevents unwanted data loss when converting objects.

As of PowerShell 7.5-preview.3, ConvertTo-Json can serialize BigInteger values as raw JSON numbers.

This cmdlet was introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0.

(Get-UICulture).Calendar | ConvertTo-Json

{
  "MinSupportedDateTime": "0001-01-01T00:00:00",
  "MaxSupportedDateTime": "9999-12-31T23:59:59.9999999",
  "AlgorithmType": 1,
  "CalendarType": 1,
  "Eras": [
    1
  ],
  "TwoDigitYearMax": 2029,
  "IsReadOnly": true
}

This command uses the ConvertTo-Json cmdlet to convert a GregorianCalendar object to a JSON-formatted string.

Get-Date | ConvertTo-Json; Get-Date | ConvertTo-Json -AsArray

"2021-08-05T16:13:05.6394416-07:00"
[
  "2021-08-05T16:13:05.6421709-07:00"
]

This example shows the output from ConvertTo-Json cmdlet with and without the AsArray switch parameter. You can see the second portion of the output is wrapped in array brackets.

@{Account="User01";Domain="Domain01";Admin="True"} | ConvertTo-Json -Compress

{"Domain":"Domain01","Account":"User01","Admin":"True"}

This command shows the effect of using the Compress parameter of ConvertTo-Json. The compression affects only the appearance of the string, not its validity.

Get-Date | Select-Object -Property * | ConvertTo-Json

{
  "DisplayHint": 2,
  "DateTime": "October 12, 2018 10:55:32 PM",
  "Date": "2018-10-12T00:00:00-05:00",
  "Day": 12,
  "DayOfWeek": 5,
  "DayOfYear": 285,
  "Hour": 22,
  "Kind": 2,
  "Millisecond": 639,
  "Minute": 55,
  "Month": 10,
  "Second": 32,
  "Ticks": 636749817326397744,
  "TimeOfDay": {
    "Ticks": 825326397744,
    "Days": 0,
    "Hours": 22,
    "Milliseconds": 639,
    "Minutes": 55,
    "Seconds": 32,
    "TotalDays": 0.95523888627777775,
    "TotalHours": 22.925733270666665,
    "TotalMilliseconds": 82532639.774400011,
    "TotalMinutes": 1375.54399624,
    "TotalSeconds": 82532.6397744
  },
  "Year": 2018
}

This example uses the ConvertTo-Json cmdlet to convert a System.DateTime object from the Get-Date cmdlet to a JSON-formatted string. The command uses the Select-Object cmdlet to get all (*) of the properties of the DateTime object. The output shows the JSON string that ConvertTo-Json returned.

Get-Date | Select-Object -Property * | ConvertTo-Json | ConvertFrom-Json

DisplayHint : 2
DateTime    : October 12, 2018 10:55:52 PM
Date        : 2018-10-12 12:00:00 AM
Day         : 12
DayOfWeek   : 5
DayOfYear   : 285
Hour        : 22
Kind        : 2
Millisecond : 768
Minute      : 55
Month       : 10
Second      : 52
Ticks       : 636749817527683372
TimeOfDay   : @{Ticks=825527683372; Days=0; Hours=22; Milliseconds=768; Minutes=55; Seconds=52;
              TotalDays=0.95547185575463; TotalHours=22.9313245381111; TotalMilliseconds=82552768.3372;
              TotalMinutes=1375.87947228667; TotalSeconds=82552.7683372}
Year        : 2018

This example shows how to use the ConvertTo-Json and ConvertFrom-Json cmdlets to convert an object to a JSON string and a JSON object.

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -InformationAction, -InformationVariable, -OutBuffer, -OutVariable, -PipelineVariable, -ProgressAction, -Verbose, -WarningAction, and -WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

You can pipe any object to this cmdlet.

This cmdlet returns a string representing the input object converted to a JSON string.

The ConvertTo-Json cmdlet is implemented using Newtonsoft Json.NET.