ConvertTo-CliXml
Converts an object to a CliXml-formatted string.
Syntax
Default (Default)
ConvertTo-CliXml
[-InputObject] <PSObject>
[-Depth <Int32>]
[<CommonParameters>]
Description
The ConvertTo-CliXml cmdlet converts objects to strings that are formatted as Common Language
Infrastructure (CLI) XML. This command is similar to Export-Clixml, but it doesn't write to a
file. Instead, it outputs a string.
This cmdlet was introduced in PowerShell 7.5-preview.4.
Examples
Example 1 - Convert a process object to CliXml and back
This example shows the result of converting a process object to CliXml and back. First, the current
process is stored in the variable $process. The pstypenames property of the process object
shows that the object is of type System.Diagnostics.Process. The next command displays the count
for each type of member in the process object.
$process = Get-Process -Id $PID
$process.pstypenames
System.Diagnostics.Process
System.ComponentModel.Component
System.MarshalByRefObject
System.Object
$process | Get-Member | Group-Object MemberType | Select-Object Name, Count
Name Count
---- -----
AliasProperty 7
CodeProperty 1
Property 52
NoteProperty 1
ScriptProperty 8
PropertySet 2
Method 19
Event 4
$xml = $process | ConvertTo-CliXml
$fromXML = ConvertFrom-CliXml $xml
$fromXML.pstypenames
Deserialized.System.Diagnostics.Process
Deserialized.System.ComponentModel.Component
Deserialized.System.MarshalByRefObject
Deserialized.System.Object
$fromXML | Get-Member | Group-Object MemberType | Select-Object Name, Count
Name Count
---- -----
Property 46
NoteProperty 17
PropertySet 2
Method 2
Next, the process object is converted to CliXml and back. The type of the new object is prefixed
with Deserialized. The count of members in the new object is different from the original object.
Parameters
-Depth
Specifies how many levels of contained objects are included in the XML representation. The default values is 2.
Parameter properties
| Type: | Int32 |
| Default value: | 2 |
| Supports wildcards: | False |
| DontShow: | False |
Parameter sets
(All)
| Position: | Named |
| Mandatory: | False |
| Value from pipeline: | False |
| Value from pipeline by property name: | False |
| Value from remaining arguments: | False |
-InputObject
The object to be converted to a CliXml-formatted string.
Parameter properties
| Type: | PSObject |
| Default value: | None |
| Supports wildcards: | False |
| DontShow: | False |
Parameter sets
(All)
| Position: | 0 |
| Mandatory: | True |
| Value from pipeline: | True |
| Value from pipeline by property name: | False |
| Value from remaining arguments: | False |
CommonParameters
This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -InformationAction, -InformationVariable, -OutBuffer, -OutVariable, -PipelineVariable, -ProgressAction, -Verbose, -WarningAction, and -WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.
