Converting an Excel file into CSV file in PowerShell - excel

Question

I tried this code as follows:
param(
$inputPath = "N:\Disease_Prevention\....\Samplename.xlsx",
$outputPath = "N:\Disease_Prevention\...\Output.csv"
)
$xlCSV=6
$inputPath = (Resolve-path $inputPath).Path
$outputpath = (Resolve-path $outputpath).Path
get-childitem $inputPath -File | foreach {
write-host "processing $_ "
$Excelfilename = $_.fullname
if(!$outputPath)
{
$outputPath = $_.DirectoryName
}
$CSVfilename =join-path $outputpath $_.BaseName
$CSVfilename+=".csv";
#open excel and save
$Excel = New-Object -comobject Excel.Application
$Excel.Visible = $False
$Excel.displayalerts=$False
$Workbook = $Excel.Workbooks.Open($ExcelFileName)
$Workbook.SaveAs($CSVfilename,$xlCSV)
$Excel.Quit()
If(ps excel){
kill -name excel
}
}
And received the following error as follows:
The error says "Unable to get the SaveAs property of the Workbook class"
Would you know why it could be?
And if it's a permission issue, then would you recommend an alternative way to convert excel into csv? Should I use cmdlet to read each line at the excel file and convert one by one?

Answer 1

The issues I encountered with your code are
$outputpath = (Resolve-path $outputpath).Path
Presumably this CSV file doesn't exist, so when you try to resolve the path it gives you nothing.
if(!$outputPath)
{
$outputPath = $_.DirectoryName
}
$CSVfilename =join-path $outputpath $_.BaseName
$CSVfilename+=".csv";
If you don't pass in an outputpath argument, then this will build the file properly. However, if you pass in an outputpath as a csvfile, then you build out a path that looks like
"N:\Disease_Prevention\...\Output.csv\inputpath basename.csv"
as you're appending the current file's basename and .csv to an already full path.
The adjusted code below worked fine.
param(
$inputPath = "N:\Disease_Prevention\....\Samplename.xlsx",
$outputPath = "N:\Disease_Prevention\...\Output.csv"
)
$xlCSV=6
$inputPath = (Resolve-path $inputPath).Path
get-childitem $inputPath -File | foreach {
write-host "processing $_ "
$Excelfilename = $_.fullname
if(!$outputPath)
{
$outputPath = $_.DirectoryName
$CSVfilename = join-path $outputpath $_.BaseName
$CSVfilename+=".csv"
}
else{
$CSVfilename = $outputPath
}
#open excel and save
$Excel = New-Object -comobject Excel.Application
$Excel.Visible = $False
$Excel.displayalerts=$False
$Workbook = $Excel.Workbooks.Open($ExcelFileName)
$Workbook.SaveAs($CSVfilename,$xlCSV)
$Excel.Quit()
If(ps excel){
kill -name excel
}
}
I also encourage you to check out Doug Finke's ImportExcel powershell module. Makes working with Excel files so much easier and it doesn't require Excel be installed on the machine that runs the script.