How to Convert XML to CSV File in PowerShell

1. Use Export-Csv to Convert XML to CSV in PowerShell
2. Use ConvertTo-Csv to Convert XML to CSV in PowerShell

An Extensible Markup Language (XML) file is a plain text file that uses custom tags to define the document’s structure. It is mostly used to store and share structured information.

The content of the XML file looks similar to the HTML file.

A Comma-Separated Values (CSV) file is a delimited text file that allows data to be stored in a tabular format. Each value is separated by the delimiter comma or any other characters.

This tutorial will teach you to convert an XML file to CSV in PowerShell.

Use Export-Csv to Convert XML to CSV in PowerShell

The Export-Csv cmdlet creates a CSV file of the objects. It converts objects into a series of CSV strings and saves them to a file.

We have created an XML file, website.xml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<website>
<site name="DelftStack">
<content>Programming Tutorials</content>
<topic>PowerShell Howtos</topic>
<article>How to convert XML into CSV?</article>
</site>
<site name="DelftStack">
<content>Programming Tutorials</content>
<topic>Linux Howtos</topic>
<article>Delete Files Recursively in Linux</article>
</site>
</website>

You can use the following command to convert an XML file to a CSV file.

[xml]$inputFile = Get-Content "C:\New\website.xml"
$inputFile.website.ChildNodes | Export-Csv "C:\New\website.csv" -NoTypeInformation -Delimiter:"," -Encoding:UTF8

The Get-Content cmdlet gets the content of C:\New\website.xml file. The content objects are sent down the pipeline to the Export-Csv cmdlet.

The Export-Csv converts the content objects to a series of CSV strings and saves the strings to a C:\New\website.csv file. The -Delimiter parameter specifies a delimiter to separate the property values in CSV strings.

For example, ,, ;, :, etc. The -Encoding parameter defines the encoding for the exported CSV file.

View the content of C:\New\website.csv.

Get-Content "C:\New\website.csv"

Output:

"name","content","topic","article"
"DelftStack","Programming Tutorials","PowerShell Howtos","How to convert XML into CSV?"
"DelftStack","Programming Tutorials","Linux Howtos","Delete Files Recursively in Linux"

Use ConvertTo-Csv to Convert XML to CSV in PowerShell

The ConvertTo-Csv cmdlet converts objects to CSV strings but does not save the strings to a file. You can use the Set-Content cmdlet to write CSV strings to a file.

The Set-Content is a string-processing cmdlet that writes new content or replaces the content in a file.

[xml]$inputFile = Get-Content "C:\New\website.xml"
$inputFile.website.ChildNodes | ConvertTo-Csv -NoTypeInformation -Delimiter ";" | Set-Content "C:\New\new.csv" -Encoding UTF8

The content objects are sent down the pipeline to the ConvertTo-Csv cmdlet. The ConvertTo-Csv converts the content objects to a series of CSV strings.

The strings are sent down the pipeline to the Set-Content cmdlet. The Set-Content writes the CSV strings to C:\New\new.csv file.

Get-Content "C:\New\new.csv"

Output:

"name";"content";"topic";"article"
"DelftStack";"Programming Tutorials";"PowerShell Howtos";"How to convert XML into CSV?"
"DelftStack";"Programming Tutorials";"Linux Howtos";"Delete Files Recursively in Linux"

You can view the .csv file in the table format using MS-Excel or a similar program.