CODEWITHSUNDEEP
jsonpowershellsorting
spuder
spuder

Reputation: 18427

Powershell sort PSObject alphabetically

Given a custom powershell object (bar) that is created from json (foo.json)

How would you sort the object alphabetically by key?

foo.json
{
  "bbb": {"zebras": "fast"},
  "ccc": {},
  "aaa": {"apples": "good"}
}

Desired output

foo.json
{
  "aaa": {"apples": "good"},
  "bbb": {"zebras": "fast"},
  "ccc": {}
}

Example

$bar = get-content -raw foo.json | ConvertFrom-Json  
$bar.gettype()  

IsPublic IsSerial Name                                     BaseType
-------- -------- ----                                     --------
True     False    PSCustomObject                           System.Object

I've tried the following using sort-object

$bar = $bar | Sort
$bar = $bar | Sort-Object
Sort-Object -InputObject $bar
Sort-Object -InputObject $bar -Property Name
Sort-Object -InputObject $bar -Property @{Expression="Name"}
Sort-Object -InputObject $bar -Property @{Expression={$_.PSObject.Properties.Name}}

I've also tried converting the PSObject to a hashtable (hashtables appear to automatically sort based on name), then convert that hashtable back to json, but it looses the order again. 

$buzz = @{}
$bar.psobject.properties |Foreach { $buzz[$_.Name] = $_.Value }
ConvertTo-Json $buzz -Depth 9

Update
Changed foo.json to include values aswell as keys

Upvotes: 6

Views: 10821

Answers (3)

Leon Bouquiet
Leon Bouquiet

Reputation: 4372

A combined version of @mklement0 and @EricWeintraub's answers:

Function Sort-PSObjectMembers {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param(
        [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$true)]$inputObj
    )
    process {
        $sortedProps = [ordered] @{}
        Get-Member -Type NoteProperty -InputObject $inputObj | Sort-Object Name | ForEach-Object { $sortedProps[$_.Name] = $inputObj.$($_.Name) }

        # Create a new object that receives the sorted properties.
        $sortedObj = New-Object PSCustomObject
        Add-Member -InputObject $sortedObj -NotePropertyMembers $sortedProps        

        return $sortedObj
    }
}

So you can use it like this:

$elements | Sort-PSObjectMembers | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 32 | Out-File "elements.json" -Encoding utf8

Upvotes: 1

Eric Weintraub
Eric Weintraub

Reputation: 1027

what about this:

Function Sort-PSObject {
        [CmdletBinding()]
        Param(
            [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$true)]$inputString
        )
        process {
            ($inputString | out-string).trim() -split "`r`n" | sort
        }
}

Can send direct from pipeline

Upvotes: 0

mklement0
mklement0

Reputation: 438093

As Mathias R. Jessen notes, there is no collection to sort here, just a single object whose properties you want to sort, so you need reflection via Get-Member to obtain the object's properties:

$bar = get-content -raw foo.json | ConvertFrom-Json

# Build an ordered hashtable of the property-value pairs.
$sortedProps = [ordered] @{}
Get-Member -Type  NoteProperty -InputObject $bar | Sort-Object Name |
  % { $sortedProps[$_.Name] = $bar.$($_.Name) }

# Create a new object that receives the sorted properties.
$barWithSortedProperties = New-Object PSCustomObject
Add-Member -InputObject $barWithSortedProperties -NotePropertyMembers $sortedProps

A more streamlined version that uses -pv (-PipelineVariable) to "cache" the unsorted custom object produced by ConvertFrom-Json:

$barSortedProps = New-Object PSCustomObject
Get-Content -Raw foo.json | ConvertFrom-Json -pv jo |
  Get-Member -Type  NoteProperty | Sort-Object Name | % { 
    Add-Member -InputObject $barSortedProps -Type NoteProperty `
               -Name $_.Name -Value $jo.$($_.Name)
  }

Upvotes: 8

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