How to format JSON Output into a Grid for Format-Table in PowerShell

Question

The following code is display the data I want, but it's not aligned nicely. How can I use a data-grid or format-table to align the data?

$response = Invoke-RestMethod @params
foreach ( $row in $response )
{
    Write-host "id=$($row.uuid) uuid=$($row.uuid) Subject=$($row.subject) " 
}

Example output now:

id=new-template_1 uuid=new-template_1 Subject=Welcome! 
id=new-template_3 uuid=new-template_3 Subject=Welcome!

Desired:

    id              uuid             subject 
new_template_1    new_template_1    Welcome! 
new_template_3    new_template_3    Welcome!

Change your `write-host` to, `[pscustomobject]@{ 'id'=$row.uuid ...}` — Abraham Zinala, Oct 08 '21 at 17:26
`Invoke-RestMethod @params |Select-Object @{Name='id';Expression='uuid'},uuid,Subject` — Mathias R. Jessen, Oct 08 '21 at 17:29

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 08 '21 at 18:00

If you just want a "trimmed" set of properties from the objects output by Invoke-RestMethod, use Select-Object:

$response = Invoke-RestMethod @params
$trimmedResponse = $response |Select-Object @{Name='id';Expression='uuid'},uuid,subject

# This will now default to table view formatting
$trimmedResponse

# But you can also explicitly pipe to `Format-Table` 
$trimmedResponse |Format-Table

# ... allowing you greater control over the formatting behavior
$trimmedResponse |Sort-Object Subject |Format-Table -GroupBy Subject

The first argument passed to Select-Object (@{Name='id';Expression='uuid'}) is known as a calculated property - in this case it defines a new property named id, with the value of the uuid property of the input object.

How to format JSON Output into a Grid for Format-Table in PowerShell

1 Answers1