<!-- file.xml -->
<people>
    <person id="101">
        <name>Jon Lajoie</name>
        <age>22</age>
    </person>
    <person id="102">
        <name>Lord Gaben</name>
        <age>65</age>
    </person>
    <person id="103">
        <name>Gordon Freeman</name>
        <age>29</age>
    </person>
</people>

Loading an XML File

To load an XML file, you can use any of these:

# First Method
$xdoc = New-Object System.Xml.XmlDocument
$file = Resolve-Path(".\\file.xml")
$xdoc.load($file)

# Second Method
[xml] $xdoc = Get-Content ".\\file.xml"

# Third Method
$xdoc = [xml] (Get-Content ".\\file.xml")

Accessing XML as Objects

PS C:\\> $xml = [xml](Get-Content file.xml)
PS C:\\> $xml

PS C:\\> $xml.people

person
--------
{Jon Lajoie, Lord Gaben, Gordon Freeman}

PS C:\\> $xml.people.person

id                                      name                                    age
--                                      ----                                    ---
101                                     Jon Lajoie                              22
102                                     Lord Gaben                              65
103                                     Gordon Freeman                          29

PS C:\\> $xml.people.person[0].name
Jon Lajoie

PS C:\\> $xml.people.person[1].age
65

PS C:\\> $xml.people.person[2].id
103

Accessing XML with XPath

PS C:\\> $xml = [xml](Get-Content file.xml)
PS C:\\> $xml

PS C:\\> $xml.SelectNodes("//people")

person
--------
{Jon Lajoie, Lord Gaben, Gordon Freeman}

PS C:\\> $xml.SelectNodes("//people//person")

id                                      name                                    age
--                                      ----                                    ---
101                                     Jon Lajoie                              22
102                                     Lord Gaben                              65
103                                     Gordon Freeman                          29

PS C:\\> $xml.SelectSingleNode("people//person[1]//name")
Jon Lajoie

PS C:\\> $xml.SelectSingleNode("people//person[2]//age")
65

PS C:\\> $xml.SelectSingleNode("people//person[3]//@id")
103

Accessing XML containing namespaces with XPath

PS C:\\> [xml]$xml = @"
<ns:people xmlns:ns="<http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/>">
    <ns:person id="101">
        <ns:name>Jon Lajoie</ns:name>
    </ns:person>
    <ns:person id="102">
        <ns:name>Lord Gaben</ns:name>
    </ns:person>
    <ns:person id="103">
        <ns:name>Gordon Freeman</ns:name>
    </ns:person>
</ns:people>
"@

PS C:\\> $ns = new-object Xml.XmlNamespaceManager $xml.NameTable
PS C:\\> $ns.AddNamespace("ns", $xml.DocumentElement.NamespaceURI)
PS C:\\> $xml.SelectNodes("//ns:people/ns:person", $ns)

id                                      name
--                                      ----
101                                     Jon Lajoie
102                                     Lord Gaben
103                                     Gordon Freeman