(PowerShell) Loading and Parsing a JSON Array

A JSON array is JSON that begins with "[" and ends with "]". For example, this is a JSON array that contains 3 JSON objects.

[{"name":"jack"},{"name":"john"},{"name":"joe"}]

A JSON object, however, is JSON that begins with "{" and ends with "}". For example, this JSON is an object that contains an array.

{"pets":[{"name":"jack"},{"name":"john"},{"name":"joe"}]}

This example shows how loading a JSON array is different than loading a JSON object.

Chilkat .NET Downloads

Chilkat .NET Assemblies

Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-9.5.0-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

$strJsonArray = "[{`"name`":`"jack`"},{`"name`":`"john`"},{`"name`":`"joe`"}]"

$strJsonObject = "{`"pets`":[{`"name`":`"jack`"},{`"name`":`"john`"},{`"name`":`"joe`"}]}"

# A JSON array must be loaded using JsonArray:
$jsonArray = New-Object Chilkat.JsonArray
$jsonArray.Load($strJsonArray)

# Examine the values:
$i = 0
while ($i -lt $jsonArray.Size) {
    $jsonObj = $jsonArray.ObjectAt($i)
    $([string]$i + ": " + $jsonObj.StringOf("name"))

    $i = $i + 1
}

# Output is:

# 	0: jack
# 	1: john
# 	2: joe

# A JSON object must be loaded using JsonObject
$jsonObject = New-Object Chilkat.JsonObject
$jsonObject.Load($strJsonObject)

# Examine the values:
$i = 0
$numPets = $jsonObject.SizeOfArray("pets")
while ($i -lt $numPets) {
    $jsonObject.I = $i
    $([string]$i + ": " + $jsonObject.StringOf("pets[i].name"))
    $i = $i + 1
}

# Output is:

# 	0: jack
# 	1: john
# 	2: joe