How to execute powershell script from Excel? - excel

Question

I have fully functional poweshell script, but when I try to run it from MS Excel 2010 I got an error message "You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression" and "cannot index into a null array".
I don't know where is a problem, because as I mentioned the script works without any issues when I don't try to execute it from Excel.
Thank you for any suggestions.
$paths = Get-ChildItem 'E:\TEMP' -Filter '*.txt'
$delete = Get-Content 'E:\TEMP\TEMP1\delete.log'
ForEach ($path in $paths) {
$pathtmp = "$path.tmp"
$sr = New-Object -TypeName System.IO.StreamReader -ArgumentList $path
$sw = New-Object -TypeName System.IO.StreamWriter -ArgumentList $pathtmp
Do {
$line = $sr.ReadLine()
$Column = $line.split(",")
If ($delete -notcontains $Column[1]) {
$sw.WriteLine($line)
}
} Until ( $sr.EndOfStream )
$sr.close()
$sw.close()
Remove-Item $path
Rename-Item $pathtmp $path
}
This script will delete entire row from all text files in a directory if first column of text file matches string from delete.log file.

Answer 1

An issue of the script is that it normally executes only if it being run inside of the directory where the script is placed itself, i think.
In this situation it would be e:\temp\temp1.
This possibly was the reason why excel complains, because working directories are already being set to other places than the script.
If to modify it slightly, it is possible to make it working from anywhere.
One of the possible solutions may be with assigning a full working path to read and write files variables.
Try to use these scripts:
test.ps1 script (inside e:\temp\temp1)
$paths = Get-ChildItem 'e:\TEMP' -Filter '*.txt'
$delete = Get-Content 'e:\TEMP\TEMP1\delete.log'
ForEach ($path in $paths) {
$fpath = $path.fullname
$pathtmp = "$fpath.txt"
$sr = New-Object -TypeName System.IO.StreamReader -ArgumentList "$fpath"
$sw = New-Object -TypeName System.IO.StreamWriter -ArgumentList "$pathtmp"
Do {
$line = $sr.ReadLine()
$Column = $line.split(",")
If ($delete -notcontains $Column[0]) {
$sw.WriteLine($line)
}
} Until ( $sr.EndOfStream )
$sr.close()
$sw.close()
Remove-Item "$fpath"
Rename-Item "$pathtmp" "$fpath"
}
excel macro
Sub test()
Call Shell(Environ$("COMSPEC") & " /c powershell -file E:\temp\temp1\test.ps1", vbNormalFocus)
End Sub