how to prevent PowerShell adding \ to a string

Question

I'm currently working with Powershell editing JSONs

My JSON looks like this:

   {
        "value":  ["E_"]
   }

I only want to add a specific number after E_. The result should look like this:

{
"value": ["E_5"]
}

My PS Script:

$tdePath = 'C:\temp\tde.csv'

$dirName = Get-ChildItem -Path $rootDir -Filter TDE_Config.json -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Force | Select-Object DirectoryName | Export-Csv $tdePath  -NoTypeInformation 



$importTDEJson = Import-Csv $tdePath -Encoding UTF8 | % {

[String]$nr = $_.DirectoryName.Split('\')[6].split(' ')[4] 

$full_path = $_.DirectoryName + "\TDE_Config.json"


[int]$nr2 = $nr -as [int] #Convert String to Int to convert 004 -> 4

$a = Get-Content $full_path -raw | ConvertFrom-Json




$a.value= "[`"E_" + $nr2 + "`"]" 
$a | ConvertTo-Json  | set-content $full_path -Force

}

Only excuting "[`"E_" + $nr2 + "`"]" returns the value I need. For example if $nr2 = 145 it returns in ps console

["E_145"]

But my JSON looks like this:

{
"value": "[\"E_145\"]"
}

Why is powershell adding \ to my string? How can I prevent powershell adding \ to my string?

Palle Due · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-03 12:45:47Z

3

You are mixing Json by hand and Json by ConvertTo-Json. Powershell is doing javascript escaping of the backslashes you insert. Just set $a.value like this:

$a.value= @("E_$nr2")

That will create an array and the Json conversion will do the rest for you.

EDIT: Here is a proof of concept:

$a = [pscustomobject]@{
   value = 'Something else'
}
$nr2 = 145
$a.value= @("E_$nr2") 
$a | ConvertTo-Json

outputs:

{
    "value":  [
                  "E_145"
              ]
}

edited Jan 3, 2020 at 12:45

answered Jan 3, 2020 at 8:23

Palle Due

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3 Comments

user12645355 Over a year ago

Thank you but how do I add those brackets? JSON should look like this: Example: $nr2 = 145 JSON: { "value": ["E_145"] }

Palle Due Over a year ago

ConvertTo-Json should do that for you if value is an array, there is no need to do it yourself.

Palle Due Over a year ago

I've edited the answer and added a piece of code that shows that it works.

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