PowerShell: ConvertTo-Json problem containing special characters
Try the Unescape() method:
$jsonfile | ConvertTo-Json | % { [System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Unescape($_) } | Out-File "new.json"
This is caused by the automatic character escape feature of Convertto-Json
and it affects several symbols such as <>\'&
ConvertFrom-Json will read the escaped characters properly. Using your example:
PS C:\> {"Password\u0026123"} | ConvertFrom-Json
Password&123
And your example code results in a file that has escaped characters, but ConvertFrom-Json
can read it back to the original passwords. See below:
PS C:\> (Get-Content .\example.json -Encoding Ascii) -join "`n" | ConvertFrom-Json
Server1 Server2
------- -------
@{username=root; password=Password&dfdf} @{username=admin; password=Password&1234}
PS C:\> (Get-Content .\new.json -Encoding Ascii) -join "`n" | ConvertFrom-Json
Server1 Server2
------- -------
@{username=root; password=Password&dfdf} @{username=admin; password=Password&1234}
If you need the passwords to be stored unescaped, some fancier work may be needed. See this thread about Converting Unicode strings to escaped ascii strings
Alternatively, avoid affected characters if possible.