Using PowerShell Core ConvertFrom-Markdown to parse values in a markdown table

Question

I'm interested in using the ConvertFrom-Markdown cmdlet to parse values in a markdown table. The cmdlet uses the markdig markdown processor, which has an Abstract Syntax Tree that should be able to be traversed for this purpose.

How can we search/enumerate the Tokens in the following powershell snippet to return the rows and columns?

(@'
# header1
## header2
| Column1 | Column2 |
| ------- | ------- |
| Row1Column1 | Row1Column2 |
| Row2Column1 | Ro2Column2 |
'@ | ConvertFrom-Markdown).Tokens

The values that I see in the Tokens look promising, I can see Markdig.Extensions.Tables.TableCell in the Parent fields, but that's about as far as I can get.

Answer 1

Here's a way to do it.

Note I'm not sure if, example a Table can contain only TableRows, so the | where-object { ... } might not be necessary.

# set up some sample data
$md = @"
# header1
## header2
| Column1 | Column2 |
| ------- | ------- |
| Row1Column1 | Row1Column2 |
| Row2Column1 | Ro2Column2 |
"@ | ConvertFrom-Markdown

# walk the syntax tree
$mdDoc = $md.Tokens;
$mdTables = @( $mdDoc | where-object { $_ -is [Markdig.Extensions.Tables.Table] } ); 
foreach( $mdTable in $mdTables )
{
    write-host "table";
    $mdRows = @( $mdTable | where-object { $_ -is [Markdig.Extensions.Tables.TableRow] } );
    foreach( $mdRow in $mdRows )
    {
        write-host "  row";
        write-host "    header = $($mdRow.IsHeader)";
        $mdCells = @( $mdRow | where-object { $_ -is [Markdig.Extensions.Tables.TableCell] } );
        foreach( $mdCell in $mdCells )
        {
            write-host "    cell";
            $mdInline = $mdCell.Inline;
            write-host "      inline - $($mdInline.Content)";
        }
    }
}

Which gives the following output:

table
  row
    header = True
    cell
      inline - Column1
    cell
      inline - Column2
  row
    header = False
    cell
      inline - Row1Column1
    cell
      inline - Row1Column2
  row
    header = False
    cell
      inline - Row2Column1
    cell
      inline - Ro2Column2

Hopefully that'll be enough to get you started...