How to sort an object by keys using powershell

Question

I have the following json file and I want it sorted by the keys/names. But so far I have been unable to figure out how to actually sort the json object by it's key/name.

Origional Settings.json

{
  "files.trimTrailingWhitespace": true,
  "workbench.startupEditor": "newUntitledFile",
  "editor.tabSize": 4,
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "editor.detectIndentation": false,
  "editor.trimAutoWhitespace": true
}

Code:

# Get Json File
$JsonFile = 'C:\Settings.json'
# Convert from Json File to Json Object
$Json = Get-Content $JsonFile | Out-String | ConvertFrom-Json 
# Sort Json Object (Does Not Work!!!)
$Json = $Json | Sort-Object -Property Name
#Convert Json Object to Json File
$Json | ConvertTo-Json -depth 100 | Set-Content $JsonFile

New Settings.Json

{
  "editor.detectIndentation": false,
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "editor.tabSize": 4,
  "editor.trimAutoWhitespace": true
  "files.trimTrailingWhitespace": true,
  "workbench.startupEditor": "newUntitledFile"
}

Hi, $Json | Sort-Object -Properties Name displays the sorted lines but does not store them sorted. You need to add $Json = at the beginning for that. — sodawillow
– sodawillow, Commented Mar 9, 2018 at 19:36
Or just add the Sort to the last line that outputs it. $Json | Sort -Properties Name | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 100 | Set-Content $JsonFile — TheMadTechnician
– TheMadTechnician, Commented Mar 9, 2018 at 19:38
The issue seems to be that the sort-object -property name does not actually sort the object. — Keith
– Keith, Commented Mar 9, 2018 at 19:49

Keith · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-09 20:04:07Z

3

Answer was here: Powershell sort PSObject alphabetically

This issue was that the json file did not have a collection to sort but was a single object whose properties I wanted to sort. Below is the code that works.

  # Build an ordered hashtable of the property-value pairs.
  $SortedByProperties = [ordered] @{}
  Get-Member -Type  NoteProperty -InputObject $Json | Sort-Object Name |
    ForEach-Object { $SortedByProperties[$_.Name] = $Json.$($_.Name) }

  # Create a new object that receives the sorted properties.
  $JsonFileSorted = New-Object PSCustomObject
  Add-Member -InputObject $JsonFileSorted -NotePropertyMembers $SortedByProperties

  $JsonFileSorted | ConvertTo-Json -depth 100 | Set-Content $JsonFile

answered Mar 9, 2018 at 20:04

Keith

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wxh · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-22 16:02:42Z

3

$json | Select-Object ($json | Get-Member -MemberType NoteProperty).Name | ConvertTo-Json

answered Jul 22, 2020 at 16:02

wxh

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2 Comments

Lance U. Matthews Over a year ago

It'd be helpful to give some kind of explanation of what this is doing so it's not just a code dump. This appears to be relying on Get-Member to perform the sorting, which is neither obvious nor documented behavior.

Michael Buchoff Over a year ago

Thumbs up because the code posted worked (for me) and was elegant, but I agree with the comment, an explanation would be nice.

Yaroslav · Accepted Answer · 2023-08-18 09:29:23Z

1

Just to sum up for quick copy-past option

  $JsonFile = 'C:\data.json'
  $JSON = Get-Content $JsonFile | ConvertFrom-Json

  # Build an ordered hashtable of the property-value pairs. 
  $SortedByProperties = [ordered] @{}
  Get-Member -Type  NoteProperty -InputObject $Json | Sort-Object Name |
    ForEach-Object { $SortedByProperties[$_.Name] = $Json.$($_.Name) }

  # Create a new object that receives the sorted properties. 
  $JsonFileSorted = New-Object PSCustomObject
  Add-Member -InputObject $JsonFileSorted -NotePropertyMembers $SortedByProperties

  $JsonFileSorted | ConvertTo-Json -depth 100 | Set-Content $JsonFile

Thanks @Keith for question and answer

answered Aug 18, 2023 at 9:29

Yaroslav

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