What does #"String"# syntax mean in powershell - string

Not sure what this is an cant find it on the internet
$myString = #"
string
"#
$myRegularString = "string"
write-output $myString.getType() # outputs System.String
write-output $myRegularString.getType() # outputs System.String
I encountered the latter when someone converted the text of a string to a .pbk file. They originally said there was a problem converting it to utf8 but when I imported the .pbk properties from a text using get-content $myString -encoding utf8 file it was fine
So whats the difference? Is one fancier?

Those are here-strings, they allow to preserve formatting, including line breaks:
$string = #"
this is
a test
string
"#
Also please be aware that when you use Get-Content -Path test.txt the result is an array of strings (each line is an array item). If you want to get the file content as a single string object you will need to use Get-Content -Path test.txt -Raw.

Related

Manipulate strings in a txt file with Powershell - Search for words in each line containing "." and save them in new txt file

I have a text file with different entries. I want to manipulate it to filter out always the word, containing a dot (using Powershell)
$file = "C:\Users\test_folder\test.txt"
Get-Content $file
Output:
Compass Zype.Compass 1.1.0 thisisaword
Pomodoro Logger zxch3n.PomodoroLogger 0.6.3 thisisaword
......
......
......
Bla Word Program.Name 1.1.1 this is another entry
As you can see, in all lines, the "second" "word" contains a dot, like "Program.Name".
I want to create a new file, which contains just those words, each line one word.
So my file should look something like:
Zype.Compass
zxch3n.PomodoroLogger
Program.Name
What I have tried so far:
Clear-Host
$folder = "C:\Users\test_folder"
$file = "C:\Users\test_folder\test.txt"
$content_txtfile = Get-Content $file
foreach ($line in $content_textfile)
{
if ($line -like "*.*"){
$line | Out-File "$folder\test_filtered.txt"
}
}
But my output is not what I want.
I hope you get what my problem is.
Thanks in advance! :)
Here is a solution using Select-String to find sub strings by RegEx pattern:
(Select-String -Path $file -Pattern '\w+\.\w+').Matches.Value |
Set-Content "$folder\test_filtered.txt"
You can find an explanation and the ability to experiment with the RegEx pattern at RegEx101.
Note that while the RegEx101 demo also shows matches for the version numbers, Select-String gives you only the first match per line (unless argument -AllMatches is passed).
This looks like fixed-width fields, and if so you can reduce it to this:
Get-Content $file | # Read the file
%{ $_.Substring(29,36).Trim()} | # Extract the column
?{ $_.Contains(".") } | # Filter for values with "."
Set-Content "$folder\test_filtered.txt" # Write result
Get-content is slow and -like is sometimes slower than -match. I prefer -match but some prefer -like.
$filename = "c:\path\to\file.txt"
$output = "c:\path\to\output.txt"
foreach ($line in [System.IO.File]::ReadLines($filename)) {
if ($line -match "\.") {
$line | out-file $output -append
}
}
Otherwise for a shorter option, maybe
$filename = "c:\path\to\file.txt"
$output = "c:\path\to\output.txt"
Get-content "c:\path\to\file.txt" | where {$_ -match "\.") | Out-file $output
For other match options that are for the first column, either name the column (not what you do here) or use a different search criteria
\. Means a period anywhere seein the whole line
If it's all periods and at the beginning you can use begining of line so..
"^\." Which means first character is a period.
If it's always a period before the tab maybe do an anything except tab period anything except tab or...
"^[^\t]*\.[^\t]*" this means at the start of the line anything except tab any quantity then a period then anything except a tab any number of times.

New-item "Illegal Characters in path" when I use a Variable that contains a here string

foreach ($Target in $TargetUSBs)
{
$LogPath= #"
$SourceUSB\$(((Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_volume)|where {$_.DriveType -eq "2" -and $_.DriveLetter -eq $Target}).SerialNumber)_
$(((Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem).LocalDateTime).Year)$(((Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem).LocalDateTime).Month)
$(((Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem).LocalDateTime).Day)_$(((Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem).LocalDateTime).Hour)
$(((Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem).LocalDateTime).Minute)$(((Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem).LocalDateTime).Second).txt
"#
$LogPath = $LogPath.Replace("`n","").Trim()
New-item -Path "$LogPath"
}
The Irony is when I copy and paste the contents of my variable and manually create a new-item -path and paste said contents it works but when I use the variable it does not...
Brief summary of my goal I am taking a USB labelled ORIGINAL and obtaining the S/N of every USB plugged in at the time and creating separate log files for each with the title consisting of SERIALNUMBER_DATE_TIME.txt and these files are created in ORIGINAL USB
$LogPath contains for example the following: E:\Mattel\1949721369_2018912_93427.txt
Yet when I use the Variable in New-item it indicates "Illegal characters in Path"
FYI $LogPath is a System.String not an object
$TargetUSBs is filled with all USB drives plugged into the system
this method of using a variable for a path usually works fine for me only difference is the here-string I used this time around does this cause my problem? I hope not because I really don't want to fill that variable all on one line. New-Item's helpfiles shows <String[]> for -path parameter does this mean I have to use a string array? and if so how do I convert this to make this work?
Your problem is that Windows uses CRLF line endings (Unix only LF), so you still have CR chars in your path.
To fix this just use:
.Replace("`r`n","")
However you can easily simplify your code so you do not require the messy here-string or replace/trim...
By using a single Get-Date call you can format it to your desired output. This means you can just build the Path as a simple string and involves much less code:
foreach ($Target in $TargetUSBs)
{
$SerialNumber = Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_volume | where {$_.DriveType -eq "2" -and $_.DriveLetter -eq $Target} | Select-Object -ExpandProperty SerialNumber
$DateTime = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMd_Hms"
New-item -Path "$SourceUSB\$SerialNumber_$DateTime.txt"
}

Powershell - Pulling string from txt, splitting it, then concatenating it for archive

I have an application where I am getting a list of new\modified files from git status, then I take the incomplete strings from that file, concatenate them with the root dir file path, then move those files to an archive. I have it half working, but the nature of how I am using powershell does not provide error reports and the process is obviously erroring out. Here is the code I am trying to use. (It has gone through several iterations, please excuse the commented out portions) Basically I am trying to Get-Content from the txt file, then replace ? with \ (for some reason the process that creates the txt love forward slashes...), then split that string at the spaces. The only part of the string I am interested in is the last part, which I am trying to concatenate with the known working root directory, then I am attempting to move those to an archive location. Before you ask, this is something we are not willing to track in git, due to the nature of the files (they are test outputs that are time stamped, we want to save them on a per test run basis, not in git) I am still fairly new to powershell and have been banging my head against this rock for far too long.
Get-Content $outfile | Foreach-Object
{
#$_.Replace("/","\")
#$lineSplit = $_.Split(' ')
$_.Split(" ")
$filePath = "$repo_dir\$_[-1]"
$filePath.Replace('/','\')
"File Path Created: $filePath"
$untrackedLegacyTestFiles += $filePath
}
Get-Content $untrackedLegacyTestFiles | Foreach-Object
{
Copy-Item $_ $target_root -force
"Copying File: $_ to $target_root"
}
}
the $outfile is a text file where each line has a partial file path leading to a txt file generated by a test application we use. This info is provided by git, so it looks like this in the $outfile txt file:
!! Some/File/Path/Doc.txt
The "!!" mean git sees it as a new file, however it could be several characters from a " M" to "??". Which is why I am trying to split it on the spaces and take only the last element.
My desired output would be to take the the last element of the split string from the $outfile (Some/File/Path/Doc.txt) and concatenate it with the $repo_dir to form a complete file path, then move the Doc.txt to an archive location ($target_root).
To combine a path in PowerShell, you should use the Join-Path cmdlet. To extract the path from your string, you can use a regex:
$extractedPath = [regex]::Match('!! Some/File/Path/Doc.txt', '.*\s(.+)$').Groups[1].Value
$filePath = Join-Path $repo_dir $extractedPath
The Join-Path cmldet will also convert all forward slashes to backslashes so no need to replace them :-).
Your whole script could look like this:
Get-Content $outfile | Foreach-Object {
$path = Join-Path $repo_dir ([regex]::Match($_, '.*\s(.+)$').Groups[1].Value)
Copy-Item $path $target_root -force
}
If you don't like to use regexin your code, you can also extract the path using:
$extractedPath = '!! Some/File/Path/Doc.txt' -split ' ' | select -Last 1
or
$extractedPath = ('!! Some/File/Path/Doc.txt' -split ' ')[-1]

PowerShell Import-CSV adding spaces between characters

I have a CSV file which looks all fine until it is imported into PowerShell, when its imported each character is followed by a space like C : \ instead of C:\.
It would be easy enough to format the cells to text in Excel (which works) but this CSV file is created on multiple servers by in an automation policy so going through each of these files and formatting them will take a while as you can imagine.
I was wondering if there was a way in which I can format the cells first in PowerShell then import the CSV.
PowerShell code I am using:
$data = import-csv -Path $path -UseCulture -Header #("Path", "Folder", "Size")
CSV Snippet:
C:\,C:\,14.0GB
C:\Program Files,Program Files,4.5GB
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office,Microsoft Office,2.8GB
It sounds like the file might be Unicode, but without the proper byte order marks, which would cause PowerShell to use the default ASCII encoding. If that is the case, you'll need to specify the encoding:
$data = import-csv -Encoding Unicode -Path $path ...
Another option is to convert the file to ASCII prior to the import [credit to OP for the command]:
Get-content C:\path\TestXml.csv | Set-Content -Encoding Ascii TestXml.csv
this might present a different problem, but it may work for removing all the spaces
$data = import-csv -Path $path -UseCulture -Header #("Path", "Folder", "Size")
$data | % {
$_.path = $_.path -replace '\s'
$_.folder = $_.folder -replace '\s'
$_.size = $_.size -replace '\s'
}
$data
It would be beneficial to get a snippet of what the CSV looks like. Can you provide the header and 1 or 2 rows?
Is the header specified in the CSV file?
When using the Header parameter, delete the original header row from the CSV file. Otherwise, Import-Csv creates an extra object from the items in the header row.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849891.aspx
You are specifying the UseCulture switch which will use the default delimiter specified by the environment. You can run the following command to find your culture's delimiter:
(Get-Culture).TextInfo.ListSeparator
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849891.aspx
#Tony Hinkle sent me in the right direction so I have marked his answer as correct, here is the code that I have used:
Set the content of the CSV to ascii encoding
Get-content C:\Users\sam\Desktop\TestXml.csv | Set-Content -Encoding Ascii TestXml.csv
Then import the Csv
$data = Import-Csv C:\Users\sam\Desktop\TestXml.csv -Header #("Path", "Folder", "Size")

save as "proper" csv / delete quotes from CSV except for where comma exists

I am downloading a CSV from a SharePoint site. It comes with a .csv file extension.
When I inspect the file's contents by opening it in Notepad, I see data that looks like this sample row:
"TITLE",OFFICE CODE,="","CUSTOMER'S NAME",ACCOUNT
I want the data look like this:
TITLE,OFFICE CODE,,"CUSTOMER'S NAME",ACCOUNT
One way to solve this problem is manually. When I open the file in Excel and save it (without altering anything), it prompts me with the following: fileOrig.csv may contain features that are not compatible with CSV (Comma delimited). Do you want to keep the workbook in this format? When I save it, and then inspect it in Notepad, the data is formatted according to how I want it do look.
Is there a quick way to resave the original CSV with PowerShell?
If there is no quick way to resave the file with PowerShell, I would like to use PowerShell to parse it.
These are the parsing rules I want to introduce:
Remove encapsulating doublequote from cells that do not contain a , char
Remove the = char
I tried writing a test script that just looks at the column that potentially contains , chars. It is supposed to find the cells that do not contain a , char, and remove the doublequotes that encapsulate the text. It does not work, because I think it tosses the doublequote upon Import-Csv
$source = 'I:\dir\fileOrig.csv'
$dest = 'I:\dir\fileStaging.csv'
$dest2 = 'I:\dir\fileFinal.csv'
get-content $source |
select -Skip 1 |
set-content "$file-temp"
move "$file-temp" $dest -Force
$testcsv = Import-Csv $dest
foreach($test in $testcsv)
{
#Write-Host $test."CUSTOMER NAME"
if($test."CUSTOMER NAME" -NotLike "*,*") {
$test."CUSTOMER NAME" -replace '"', ''
}
}
$testcsv | Export-Csv -path $dest2 -Force
Can someone please help me either with implementing the logic above, or if you know of a better way to save the file as a proper CSV, can you please let me know?
Since Excel can handle the problem, why not use a vbs script to automate it? Use notepad to create "Fix.vbs" with the following lines:
Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Set objWorkbook = objExcel.Workbooks.Open("C:\test\test.csv")
objworkbook.Application.DisplayAlerts = False
objworkbook.Save
objexcel.quit
run it from a command prompt and it should do the trick.
I see that there's already an approved answer, I'm just offering an alternative.
If you want to keep it in PowerShell you could do this:
$File = 'I:\dir\fileOrig.csv'
$dest = 'I:\dir\fileStaging.csv'
$Output = 'I:\dir\fileFinal.csv'
$CSV = Import-Csv $file
$Members = $test|gm -MemberType Properties|select -ExpandProperty name
$test|%{$row=$_;$Members|%{if(!($row.$_ -match "\w+")){$row.$_=$null}};$_=$row}|export-csv $dest -NoTypeInformation -Force
gc $file|%{($_.split(",") -replace "^`"(.*)`"$","`$1") -join ","}|Out-File $Output
That imports the CSV, makes sure that there are words (letters, numbers, and/or underscores... don't ask my why underscores are considered words, RegEx demands that it be so!) in each property for each entry, exports the CSV, then runs through the file again as just text splitting at commas and if it shows up enclosed in double quotes it strips those, re-joins the line, and then outputs it to a file. The only thing that I don't think shows up like your "preferred output" in the OP is that instead of "CUSTOMER'S NAME" you get CUSTOMER'S NAME.

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