How to parse HTML table with Powershell Core 7?

Question

I have the following code:

    $html = New-Object -ComObject "HTMLFile"
    $source = Get-Content -Path $FilePath -Raw
    try
    {
        $html.IHTMLDocument2_write($source) 2> $null
    }
    catch
    {
        $encoded = [Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetBytes($source)
        $html.write($encoded)
    }
    $t = $html.getElementsByTagName("table") | Where-Object {
        $cells = $_.tBodies[0].rows[0].cells
        $cells[0].innerText -eq "Name" -and
        $cells[1].innerText -eq "Description" -and
        $cells[2].innerText -eq "Default Value" -and
        $cells[3].innerText -eq "Release"
    }

The code works fine on Windows Powershell 5.1, but on Powershell Core 7 $_.tBodies[0].rows returns null.

So, how does one access the rows of an HTML table in PS 7?

Answer 1

PowerShell [Core], as of 7.2.1, does not come with a built-in HTML parser.

You must rely on a third-party solution, such as the PowerHTML module that wraps the HTML Agility Pack.

The object model works differently than the Internet Explorer-based one available in Windows PowerShell; it is similar to the XML DOM provided by the standard System.Xml.XmlDocument type^[1]; see the documentation and the sample code below.

# Install the module on demand
If (-not (Get-Module -ErrorAction Ignore -ListAvailable PowerHTML)) {
  Write-Verbose "Installing PowerHTML module for the current user..."
  Install-Module PowerHTML -ErrorAction Stop
}
Import-Module -ErrorAction Stop PowerHTML

# Create a sample HTML file with a table with 2 columns.
Get-Item $HOME | Select-Object Name, Mode | ConvertTo-Html > sample.html

# Parse the HTML file into an HTML DOM.
$htmlDom = ConvertFrom-Html -Path sample.html

# Find a specific table by its column names, using an XPath
# query to iterate over all tables.
$table = $htmlDom.SelectNodes('//table') | Where-Object {
  $headerRow = $_.Element('tr') # or $tbl.Elements('tr')[0]
  # Filter by column names
  $headerRow.ChildNodes[0].InnerText -eq 'Name' -and 
    $headerRow.ChildNodes[1].InnerText -eq 'Mode'
}

# Print the table's HTML text.
$table.InnerHtml

# Extract the first data row's first column value.
# Note: @(...) is required around .Elements() for indexing to work.
@($table.Elements('tr'))[1].ChildNodes[0].InnerText

A Windows-only alternative is to use the HTMLFile COM object, as shown in this answer.

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^{[1] Notably with respect to supporting XPath queries via the .SelectSingleNode() and .SelectNodes() methods, exposing child nodes via a .ChildNodes collection, and providing .InnerHtml / .OuterHtml / .InnerText properties. Instead of an indexer that supports child element names, methods .Element(<name>) and .Elements(<name>) are provided.}