how to create foreach loop in powershell with equal to command - arrays

Question

Im starting to learn PowerShell and have been trying to create a foreach loop so that if one of the JSON items has a status other than STARTED, it runs a command using its name as a variable in the executable command. Here is what my json txt file looks like;
{
"UNIT": {
"name": "AB",
"address": "fadasdaer",
"status": "MIA"
},
"UNIT": {
"name": "CD",
"address": "fadasdahsfaaer",
"status": "STARTED"
},
"UNIT": {
"name": "EF",
"address": "9afahegt",
"status": "DEAD"
}
}
And what I am trying to do is read this from my json.txt and get it to run a foreach loop and execute a command where the name is incorporated in the command. I currently have something like this, but my PowerShell understand is limited and it doesnt work...
$JSON = json.txt
$check = $JSON | ConvertFrom-Json
$started=STARTED
foreach($unit in $check.unit){
if ($unit.status -notmatch $started) {
$name=$unit.name
executable.exe start $name
}
}
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Your primary problem is that your JSON is malformed: it defines a single object and then defines its UNIT property multiple times.
You should define it as an array: note the enclosing top-level [...] and the absence of UNIT properties:
[
{
"name": "AB",
"address": "fadasdaer",
"status": "MIA"
},
{
"name": "CD",
"address": "fadasdahsfaaer",
"status": "STARTED"
},
{
"name": "EF",
"address": "9afahegt",
"status": "DEAD"
}
]
With both the JSON input and your other syntax problems corrected:
$JSON = 'json.txt'
$check = Get-Content -Raw $JSON | ConvertFrom-Json
$started = 'STARTED'
foreach ($unit in $check) {
if ($unit.status -notmatch $started) {
$name = $unit.name
executable.exe start $name
}
}
If you cannot fix the JSON at the source, you can transform it yourself before passing it to ConvertFrom-Json:
$check = (Get-Content -Raw $JSON) `
-replace '\A\{', '[' `
-replace '\}\Z', ']' `
-replace '"UNIT": ' | ConvertFrom-JSON