CODEWITHSUNDEEP
arrayspowershellmultidimensional-arraypowershell-4.0anonymous-types
Ran Dom
Ran Dom

Reputation: 355

How can I define nested object arrays in Powershell?

I have a list of ciphers that I need to identify and remove, and the easiest way for a non-developer to maintain this list is via a declaration similar to this:

$bannedCiphers = @{
    "RC4 128/128"=@{
        "IsPermitted" = $false
        "AffectedCiphers" = @{
                        "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
                        "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA",
                        "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
                        "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA"
        }
    } 
}

Although I'm having trouble creating the correct syntax for nested objects within Powershell.

What is the correct way to create an object with nested properties like the one above?

Upvotes: 5

Views: 10099

Answers (3)

ListenSoftware Louise Ai Agent
ListenSoftware Louise Ai Agent

Reputation: 4253

you can also create nested lists in a class.

class cChild{
[string] $id
[string] $field1
}

class cParent{
[string] $id
[string] $field1
[cChild[]] $child_list
}

one or more child classes can be nested in the parent as the variable $child_list. Classes set boundaries for acceptable data parsed from json.

Upvotes: 0

Pwd9000
Pwd9000

Reputation: 142

I thought I would re-post this answer and clarify my code a bit more using a custom object example.

Original solution without pscustomobject:

$bannedCiphers = @{
    "RC4 128/128"= @{
        "IsPermitted" = $false
        "AffectedCiphers" = @(
            "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
            "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA",
            "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
            "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA"
            )
        } 
    "Another RC4"= @{
        "IsPermitted" = $false
        "AffectedCiphers" = @(
            "Cipher1",
            "Cipher2",
            "Cipher3",
            "Cipher4"
            )
        } 
    }

The output of this solution will yield $bannedCiphers output:

Name                           Value
----                           -----
Another RC4                    {IsPermitted, AffectedCiphers}
RC4 128/128                    {IsPermitted, AffectedCiphers}

My solution creating custom objects:

$bannedCiphers2 = [pscustomobject]@{
    "RC4 128/128"= @{
        "IsPermitted" = $false
        "AffectedCiphers" = @(
            "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
            "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA",
            "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
            "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA"
            )
        } 
    "Another RC4"= @{
        "IsPermitted" = $false
        "AffectedCiphers" = @(
            "Cipher1",
            "Cipher2",
            "Cipher3",
            "Cipher4"
            )
        } 
    }

The output for my solution will yield $bannedCiphers2 output:

RC4 128/128                    Another RC4
-----------                    -----------
{IsPermitted, AffectedCiphers} {IsPermitted, AffectedCiphers}

original:

$bannedCiphers | Select-Object *

IsReadOnly     : False
IsFixedSize    : False
IsSynchronized : False
Keys           : {Another RC4, RC4 128/128}
Values         : {System.Collections.Hashtable, System.Collections.Hashtable}
SyncRoot       : System.Object
Count          : 2

vs:

$bannedCiphers2 | Select-Object *

RC4 128/128                    Another RC4
-----------                    -----------
{IsPermitted, AffectedCiphers} {IsPermitted, AffectedCiphers}

Upvotes: 1

Matt Oestreich
Matt Oestreich

Reputation: 8538

This should do the trick...

$bannedCiphers = @{
    "RC4 128/128"= @{
        "IsPermitted" = $false
        "AffectedCiphers" = @(
            "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
            "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA",
            "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
            "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA"
        )
    } 
}

Furthermore, the $bannedCiphers hashtable could easily be converted to JSON (and back)

A la...

$bannedCiphers | ConvertTo-Json

...which outputs:

{  
   "RC4 128/128":{  
      "IsPermitted":false,
      "AffectedCiphers":[  
         "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
         "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA",
         "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
         "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA"
      ]
   }
}

If you had this data in JSON format to begin with, you could import that into PowerShell like:

$myJsonData = @"
    {  
       "RC4 128/128":{  
          "IsPermitted":false,
          "AffectedCiphers":[  
             "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
             "SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA",
             "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5",
             "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA"
          ]
       }
    }
"@

$myNestedCiphers = $myJsonData | ConvertFrom-Json

Upvotes: 3

Related Questions