Does something like ConvertTo-TreeTable exist?

[RokeJulianLockhart]

If not evident, by “tree table”, I refer to what https://stackoverflow.com/q/77935915/9731176 describes. Specifically, say I have some JSON5 data like:

{
	"Candidate":
	{
		"Name": {
			"3rd": "Surname",
			"1st": "Forename",
			"2nd": "Middle name"
		},
		"Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
		"E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
		"Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
		"Blood Group": "" // Unknown
	},
	"Mother":
	{
		"Name": {
			"3rd": "Surname",
			"1st": "Forename",
			"2nd": "Middle name"
		},
		"Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
		"E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
		"Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
	},
	"Father":
	{
		"Name": {
			"3rd": "Surname",
			"1st": "Forename",
			"2nd": "Middle name"
		},
		"Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
		"E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
		"Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
	},
}

If I import this like

$Values = @'
{
	"Candidate":
	{
		"Name": {
			"3rd": "Surname",
			"1st": "Forename",
			"2nd": "Middle name"
		},
		"Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
		"E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
		"Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
		"Blood Group": "" // Unknown
	},
	"Mother":
	{
		"Name": {
			"3rd": "Surname",
			"1st": "Forename",
			"2nd": "Middle name"
		},
		"Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
		"E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
		"Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
	},
	"Father":
	{
		"Name": {
			"3rd": "Surname",
			"1st": "Forename",
			"2nd": "Middle name"
		},
		"Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
		"E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
		"Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
	},
}
'@
$Values | ConvertFrom-JSON
$Values | ConvertFrom-JSON | Select-Object -ExpandProperty 'Candidate'

This gives me firstly a useless table and then a table of a very small amount of attributes:

PS /home/RokeJulianLockhart> $Values = @'
>> {
>> "Candidate":
>> {
>> "Name": {
>> "3rd": "Surname",
>> "1st": "Forename",
>> "2nd": "Middle name"
>> },
>> "Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
>> "E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
>> "Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
>> "Blood Group": "" // Unknown
>> },
>> "Mother":
>> {
>> "Name": {
>> "3rd": "Surname",
>> "1st": "Forename",
>> "2nd": "Middle name"
>> },
>> "Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
>> "E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
>> "Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
>> },
>> "Father":
>> {
>> "Name": {
>> "3rd": "Surname",
>> "1st": "Forename",
>> "2nd": "Middle name"
>> },
>> "Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
>> "E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
>> "Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
>> },
>> }
>> '@
PS /home/RokeJulianLockhart> $Values | ConvertFrom-JSON

Candidate                                                                                                                                Mother                                                                                                                     Father
---------                                                                                                                                ------                                                                                                                     ------
@{Name=; Date of Birth=+1582-10-15; E-mail Address=mailTo:address@domain.TLD; Mobile Telephone Number=tel:+00-0000-000000; Blood Group=} @{Name=; Date of Birth=+1582-10-15; E-mail Address=mailTo:address@domain.TLD; Mobile Telephone Number=tel:+00-0000-000000} @{Name=; …

PS /home/RokeJulianLockhart> $Values | ConvertFrom-JSON | Select-Object -ExpandProperty 'Candidate'

Name                    : @{3rd=Surname; 1st=Forename; 2nd=Middle name}
Date of Birth           : +1582-10-15
E-mail Address          : mailTo:address@domain.TLD
Mobile Telephone Number : tel:+00-0000-000000
Blood Group             : 

PS /home/RokeJulianLockhart>

This isn't desirable — I want to see all of the attributes simultaneously, but with their hierarchies preserved (so merely recursively displaying all of them shan't be useful). As an example:

1. $Values | ConvertFrom-JSON | Select-Object -ExpandProperty 'Candidate' | ConvertTo-TreeTable

2. Name                    : @{3rd=Surname; 1st=Forename; 2nd=Middle name}
     3rd                   : Surname
     1st                   : Forename
     2nd                   : Middle name
   Date of Birth           : +1582-10-15
   E-mail Address          : mailTo:address@domain.TLD
   Mobile Telephone Number : tel:+00-0000-000000
   Blood Group             :
   

[rhubarb-geek-nz]

Have you considered converting it to YAML for output?

[RokeJulianLockhart]

https://github.com/orgs/PowerShell/discussions/21343#discussioncomment-8789685

@rhubarb-geek-nz, no — I've tried to stay away from it due to my experiences with YAML matching https://ruudvanasseldonk.com/2023/01/11/the-yaml-document-from-hell. It just seems like less readable unquoted (https://github.com/json5/json5/blob/de344f0619bda1465a6e25c76f1c0c3dda8108d9/README.md#example:~:text=%7B%0A%20%20%2F%2F%20comments-,unquoted,-%3A%20'and%20you%20can) JSON5. Why do you ask?

[rhubarb-geek-nz]

Why do you ask?

Because your desired output does not look a million miles away from YAML output. The only difference been a few hyphens and the label value is not in a single column.

[RokeJulianLockhart]

https://github.com/orgs/PowerShell/discussions/21343#discussioncomment-8789814

@rhubarb-geek-nz, I see why, then. Unfortunately, the important part of this is to be able to see nested attributes alongside their parents, as a standard fully-expanded GUI tree table would, on demand.

[rhubarb-geek-nz]

YAML would be like

Candidate:
  Date of Birth: +1582-10-15
  E-mail Address: mailTo:address@domain.TLD
  Mobile Telephone Number: tel:+00-0000-000000
  Name:
    1st: Forename
    2nd: Middle name
    3rd: Surname
Father:
  Date of Birth: +1582-10-15
  E-mail Address: mailTo:address@domain.TLD
  Mobile Telephone Number: tel:+00-0000-000000
  Name:
    1st: Forename
    2nd: Middle name
    3rd: Surname
Mother:
  Date of Birth: +1582-10-15
  E-mail Address: mailTo:address@domain.TLD
  Mobile Telephone Number: tel:+00-0000-000000
  Name:
    1st: Forename
    2nd: Middle name
    3rd: Surname

[RokeJulianLockhart]

https://github.com/orgs/PowerShell/discussions/21343#discussioncomment-8790710

Thanks, @rhubarb-geek-nz. Using something https://github.com/cloudbase/powershell-yaml/blob/f89282a327a8cd57ee85c231642db49dfc85de1a/README.md#convertto-yaml to get to that point isn't bad — it's 50% what I want. It's not a prettified table, but it's at least a slightly readable hierarchical key-value pair than unquoted JSON5 is.

[ThomasNieto]

The stackoverflow page you referenced doesn't work so not entirely sure what display you want but if you want to display items recursively you can use the Format-Custom command with your own custom formatter or the default.

$Values | ConvertFrom-JSON | Select-Object -ExpandProperty 'Candidate' | Format-Custom

class PSCustomObject
{
  Name =
    class PSCustomObject
    {
      3rd = Surname
      1st = Forename
      2nd = Middle name
    }
  Date of Birth = +1582-10-15
  E-mail Address = mailTo:address@domain.TLD
  Mobile Telephone Number = tel:+00-0000-000000
  Blood Group =
}

[ThomasNieto]

@RokeJulianLockhart Did you install or upgrade the module? It doesn't come with the default install of PowerShell.

[RokeJulianLockhart]

https://github.com/orgs/PowerShell/discussions/21343#discussioncomment-8791377

Ah, @ThomasNieto, so it turns out that I'm stupid. I'm so used to having all the tools I could think of already in-built that I rarely ever need to install any modules. Indeed, https://github.com/PowerShell/GraphicalTools/blob/9619e5d1ccd2e2eb76a57ebc869ea21b42c3ecd6/README.md#installation installed it.

However, it doesn't appear to parse the object:

1. $Values = @'
   {
   	"Candidate":
   	{
   		"Name": {
   			"3rd": "Surname",
   			"1st": "Forename",
   			"2nd": "Middle name"
   		},
   		"Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
   		"E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
   		"Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
   		"Blood Group": "" // Unknown
   	},
   	"Mother":
   	{
   		"Name": {
   			"3rd": "Surname",
   			"1st": "Forename",
   			"2nd": "Middle name"
   		},
   		"Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
   		"E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
   		"Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
   	},
   	"Father":
   	{
   		"Name": {
   			"3rd": "Surname",
   			"1st": "Forename",
   			"2nd": "Middle name"
   		},
   		"Date of Birth": "+1582-10-15",
   		"E-mail Address": "mailTo:address@domain.TLD",
   		"Mobile Telephone Number": "tel:+00-0000-000000",
   	},
   }
   '@

2. • 1. $Values | Show-ObjectTree

     2. 

   • 1. $Values | ConvertFrom-JSON | Show-ObjectTree

     2. 

     3. When that expansion indicator is invoked, it disappears:

        

[ThomasNieto]

Most likely there is a bug with PSObject NoteProperties not being enumerated. Here is an example with Get-Process

[RokeJulianLockhart]

https://github.com/orgs/PowerShell/discussions/21343#discussioncomment-8813182

Yeah, @ThomasNieto, I do get the same as you in that case. I'll report a https://github.com/PowerShell/GraphicalTools/issues/new?assignees=&labels=Needs-Triage&projects=&template=Bug_Report.yaml.

[RokeJulianLockhart]

https://github.com/orgs/PowerShell/discussions/21343#discussioncomment-8813327

PowerShell/ConsoleGuiTools#242 (comment)

[RokeJulianLockhart]

https://github.com/orgs/PowerShell/discussions/21343#discussion-6373651

Per PowerShell/ConsoleGuiTools#243 (comment), I can consider https://github.com/orgs/PowerShell/discussions/21343#discussioncomment-8791165 the answer now.