I am trying to manipulate json file data in powershell and write it back to the file. Even before the manipulation, when I just read from the file, convert it to Json object in powershell and write it back to the file, some characters are being replaced by some codes. Following is my code:
$jsonFileData = Get-Content $jsonFileLocation
$jsonObject = $jsonFileData | ConvertFrom-Json
... (Modify jsonObject) # Commented out this code to write back the same object
$jsonFileDataToWrite = $jsonObject | ConvertTo-Json
$jsonFileDataToWrite | Out-File $jsonFileLocation
Some characters are being replaced by their codes. E.g.:
< is replaced by \u003c
> is replaced by \u003e.
' is replaced by \u0027
Sample input:
{
"$schema": "https://source.com/template.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
"accountName": {
"type": "string",
"defaultValue": "<sampleAccountName>"
},
"accountType": {
"type": "string",
"defaultValue": "<sampleAccountType>"
},
},
"variables": {
"location": "sampleLocation",
"account": "[parameters('accountName')]",
"type": "[parameters('accountType')]",
}
}
Output:
{
"$schema": "https://source.com/template.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
"accountName": {
"type": "string",
"defaultValue": "\u003csampleAccountName\u003e"
},
"accountType": {
"type": "string",
"defaultValue": "\u003csampleAccountType\u003e"
},
},
"variables": {
"location": "sampleLocation",
"account": "[parameters(\u0027accountName\u0027)]",
"type": "[parameters(\u0027accountType\u0027)]",
}
}
Why is this happening and what can I do to make it not to replace the characters and write them back the same way?
Since
ConvertTo-Json
uses .NETJavaScriptSerializer
under the hood, the question is more or less already answered here.Here's some shameless copypaste:
If you really need to turn character codes back to unescaped characters, the easiest way is probably to do a regex replace for each character code. Example: