Question

Find Differences in XML files using PowerShell

Asked by: martit01

Is there a PowerShell script (or Cmdlet) to find the differences in two XML files?  For example I have a "baseline.xml" file which servers as the baseline, and I have a "changes.xml" which contains all changes against the baseline.xml file.  So, I'm looking for a PowerShell script to run a dif against these two XML files and then dump those differences to a third XML file.  

Thanks,
Tom

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Asked On
2009-03-18 at 10:46:40ID24242697
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Answers

 

by: BSonPoshPosted on 2009-03-18 at 15:00:18ID: 23924259

hrm.. you can try this

compare-object [XML](get-content baseline.xml) -diff [XML](get-content changes.xml)

 

by: martit01Posted on 2009-03-19 at 17:38:00ID: 23936035

I had to replace the [XML] with a $

So it worked like this:  compare-object $(get-content baseline.xml) -diff $(get-content changes.xml)

Sorry, but I'm new to PowerShell, was changing the [XML] to a $ suppose to be common knowledge?  Just trying to understand why it worked like that?

Thanks

 

by: BSonPoshPosted on 2009-03-19 at 20:28:52ID: 23936655

[XML] should have converted the data to an XML object.
$ converted the return value of what ever () into a variable. In this case most likely a string.

The [XML] should have worked, but I couldn't test it when I posted.

Basic difference is the [XML] would have compared the xml objects where $ was just comparing strings.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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