Powershell Datahandling - excel

Question

Dear Stack Overflow Community,
I think you can guess it, Houston has got a problem.
Background: Our Company was attacked by Hackers and we lost a TON of data. Now, where everything is back up and running (more or less) it came to light that we have thousands and thousands of old .xls and .doc Documents on our servers which have to be converted to the newer formats before re-entering our brand new server structure.
Currently I am trying to write a script that converts XLS to XLSX. The Problem: I am good at Batch Programming but completly lost when it comes to Powershell. This is my third attempt after writing it from scratch. It does what it is supposed to do, but I don´t know how to do proper data handling in PS.
What it is supposed to do:
Ask the User where to look for XLS files.
Ask the User where to store the new XLSX files.
Take every .xls file from the directory (and subfolders), open it and save it as .xlsx to the given path.
What it does so far:
Ask the User where to look for XLS files.
Ask the User where to store the new XLSX files.
Screw up the paths completly + cant open file.
It is able to convert .xls to .xlsx when I modify the script to feed it the complete paths. So the Excel part seems to be correct. I know my data handling part is very wrong. I tried to rewrite it many times now. I left it in so you may see what I tried to do.
$LookXLS = Read-Host -Prompt 'Where do I look for XLS?'
$TargetpathXLSX = Read-Host -Prompt 'Where to save the XLSX?'
Write-Host $LookXLS
cd $LookXLS # Change Directory to given path
Get-ChildItem -Path .\ -Filter *.xls -Recurse -File -Name| ForEach-Object {
[System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($_)
$excel=New-Object -comobject Excel.Application
$excel.Visible =$TRUE
$excel.DisplayAlerts = $FALSE
$wb = $excel.Workbooks.Open($LookXLS)
$LookXLS=$TargetpathXLSX
$typ=".xlsx"
$TargetPathXLSX="$TargetpathXLSX\$_$typ"
echo $TargetPathXLSX
$excel.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs("$TargetPathXLSX",51)
$excel.ActiveWorkbook.Close()
$excel.Quit()
}
echo Process finished.
pause
The Output looks like this:
(Comments by me because it is partly German)
PS C:\Users\USER\Desktop\Testordner\Userverzeichnis> C:\Users\USER\Desktop\new 1.ps1
Where do I look for XLS?: C:\Users\USER\Desktop\Testordner\Userverzeichnis
Where to save the XLSX?: C:\Users\USER\Desktop\Testordner\Ziel
C:\Users\USER\Desktop\Testordner\Userverzeichnis
Microsoft Excel-Arbeitsblatt (neu) (2).xls
Wir konnten 'Arbeit\Microsoft Excel-Arbeitsblatt (neu) (2).xls' nicht finden. Wurde das Objekt vielleicht verschoben, umbenannt oder gelöscht? **#Can´t find it**
In C:\Users\USER\Desktop\new 1.ps1:17 Zeichen:1
+ $wb = $excel.Workbooks.Open($_)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (:) [], COMException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
C:\Users\USER\Desktop\Testordner\Ziel\Arbeit\Microsoft Excel-Arbeitsblatt (neu) (2).xls.xlsx
Es ist nicht möglich, eine Methode für einen Ausdruck aufzurufen, der den NULL hat.
**#NULL (obviously, the path is screwed up)**
In C:\Users\USER\Desktop\new 1.ps1:22 Zeichen:1
+ $excel.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs("$TargetPathXLSX",51)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull
Es ist nicht möglich, eine Methode für einen Ausdruck aufzurufen, der den NULL hat.
In C:\Users\USER\Desktop\new 1.ps1:24 Zeichen:1
+ $excel.ActiveWorkbook.Close()
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull
Microsoft Excel-Arbeitsblatt (neu).xlsx
Wir konnten 'Arbeit\Microsoft Excel-Arbeitsblatt (neu).xlsx' nicht finden. Wurde das Objekt vielleicht verschoben, umbenannt oder gelöscht?
In C:\Users\USER\Desktop\new 1.ps1:17 Zeichen:1
+ $wb = $excel.Workbooks.Open($_)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (:) [], COMException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
C:\Users\USER\Desktop\Testordner\Ziel\Arbeit\Microsoft Excel-Arbeitsblatt (neu) (2).xls.xlsx\Arbeit\Microsoft Excel-Arbeitsblatt (neu).xlsx.xlsx
**#It gets worse every time it loops.**
Es ist nicht möglich, eine Methode für einen Ausdruck aufzurufen, der den NULL hat.
In C:\Users\USER\Desktop\new 1.ps1:22 Zeichen:1
+ $excel.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs("$TargetPathXLSX",51)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull
Es ist nicht möglich, eine Methode für einen Ausdruck aufzurufen, der den NULL hat.
In C:\Users\USER\Desktop\new 1.ps1:24 Zeichen:1
+ $excel.ActiveWorkbook.Close()
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull
I hope, somehow you can help me. I´m not a PS guy, but sadly Batch can´t work with Excel. I don´t think I am too far from a solution.

Answer 1

Try this -
$LookXLS = Read-Host -Prompt 'Where do I look for XLS?'
$TargetpathXLSX = Read-Host -Prompt 'Where to save the XLSX?'
Write-Host "$($LookXLS) is where we look" -ForegroundColor cyan
cd $LookXLS # Change Directory to given path
Get-ChildItem -Path .\ -Filter *.xls -Recurse | ForEach-Object {
$path = ($_.fullname).substring(0, ($_.FullName).lastindexOf("."))
$excel = New-Object -comobject Excel.Application
$excel.Visible = $TRUE
$excel.DisplayAlerts = $FALSE
$wb = $excel.Workbooks.Open($_.FullName)
$path += ".xlsx"
$wb.saveas($path, 51)
$wb.close()
$excel.Quit()
}
The above code changes the xls files to xlsx. You need to add the code for copying the xlsx files to the target folder.