Sorts an XML file by element and attribute names, removes not needed empty tags. Useful for diffing XML files.

xmlsort.ps1

<#
.SYNOPSIS Sorts an XML file by element and attribute names, removes not needed empty tags. Useful for diffing XML files.
.NOTES
    Original https://danielsmon.com/2017/03/10/diff-xml-via-sorting-xml-elements-and-attributes/
    Last change: Peter Pirc (remove empty end tag)
    Licence Public domain
#>
 
param (
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline=$true)]
    # The path to the XML file to be sorted
    [string]$XmlPath
)
 
process {
    if (-not (Test-Path $XmlPath)) {
        Write-Warning "Skipping $XmlPath, as it was not found."
        continue;
    }
 
    $fullXmlPath = (Resolve-Path $XmlPath)   
    [xml]$xml = Get-Content $fullXmlPath
    Write-Output "Sorting $fullXmlPath"
 
    function SortChildNodes($node, $depth = 0, $maxDepth = 20) {
        if ($node.HasChildNodes -and $depth -lt $maxDepth) {
            foreach ($child in $node.ChildNodes) {
                SortChildNodes $child ($depth + 1) $maxDepth
            }
        }
 
        $sortedAttributes = $node.Attributes | Sort-Object { $_.Name }
        $sortedChildren = $node.ChildNodes | Sort-Object { $_.OuterXml }
 
        $node.RemoveAll()
 
        foreach ($sortedAttribute in $sortedAttributes) {
            [void]$node.Attributes.Append($sortedAttribute)
        }
 
        foreach ($sortedChild in $sortedChildren) {
            
            if($sortedChild.HasChildNodes -eq $false -and $sortedChild.NodeType -eq [System.Xml.XmlNodeType]::Element){
               $sortedChild.IsEmpty=$true
            }
            [void]$node.AppendChild($sortedChild)
        }
    }
 
    SortChildNodes $xml.DocumentElement
 
    $xml.Save($fullXmlPath)
}