need some help getting powershell do delete cell content and inserting a formula - excel

Question

Here is the script as it sits. $of is set to the name of the file that gets downloaded with wget. I am getting exception from HRESULT: 0x0800A03EC which has something to do with the range portion and it seeing a 0 based range, but I am giving it 2 : # of rows.
How can I get PowerShell to clear the range and then insert the formula?
#open the downloaded worksheet
$Excel = New-Object -Com Excel.Application
$Workbook = $Excel.Workbooks.Open($of)
$page = 'Project Summary'
$ws = $Workbook.Worksheets | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq $page}
# Set variables for the worksheet cells, and for navigation
$cells = $ws.Cells
$row = 1
$col = 5
# Add the header to the worksheet
$headers = "Region"
$headers | foreach {
$cells.Item($row, $col) = $_
}
# Add the formula to each occupied row
$rows = $worksheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count
$ws.Range("E2:E" + $rows).Clear()
$ws.Range("E2:E" + $rows).Formula = "=SUM(E2:E5)"
$Excel.Visible = $true
$Excel.DisplayAlerts = $false
$Excel.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs('W:\test.xlsx')
I also tried
$rows | foreach {
$ws.Cells("E" + $rows).Clear()
$ws.Cells("E" + $rows).Formula = "=SUM(E2:E5)"
}
That gives me a Value does not fall within the expected range error.
How can I get this to clear each cell in the range E2:E<lastRow> and then insert a formula?
I have gone back to the following after finding a way to escape the entire formula using #' ... '#; there was clearly an error in my escape sequence earlier, but the following is not performing exactly as expected either.
$ws.Range("E2:E$rows").Clear();
$ws.Range("E2:E$rows").Formula = $Formula1
This now populates the formula, but it comes in as text and not as a formula; I have to solve for this.

Answer 1

#open the downloaded worksheet
$Excel = New-Object -Com Excel.Application
$Workbook = $Excel.Workbooks.Open($of)
$page = 'Project Summary'
$ws = $Workbook.Worksheets | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq $page}
# Set variables for the worksheet cells, and for navigation
$cells = $ws.Cells
$row = 1
$col = 5
# Add the header to the worksheet
$headers = "Region"
#open the downloaded worksheet
$excel = New-Object -Com Excel.Application
$Workbook = $Excel.Workbooks.Open($of)
$page = 'Project Summary'
$ws = $Workbook.worksheets | where-object {$_.Name -eq $page}
$Formula1 = #"
=SUM(E2:E5)
"#
$cells=$ws.Cells
$row=1
$col=5
$range = $ws.UsedRange
$rows = $range.Rows.Count
$ws.Range("E2:E$rows").Clear();
$ws.Range("E2:E$rows").Formula = $Formula1
# Add the header to the worksheet
$headers = "Region"
$headers | foreach {
$cells.item($row, $col) = $_
}
$excel.visible = $true
$excel.DisplayAlerts = $False
$excel.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs('W:\Test.xlsx')
$excel.Quit()
[System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($excel)
Remove-Item $of
This is the outcome. Escaping may or may not have been the original issue, but the help here guided me to a better way to deal with it if it was the issue. I still never solved why the loop was giving the value error, but this works so I won't have to tackle that yet; that is the next script which this post will also help me with.