CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellpowershell-2.0
Ambrish
Ambrish

Reputation: 11

In Powershell -- Export object to textfile in custom format

Since, i am a beginner, i 've no much hands-on to the powershell programming.Although i had a script developed to insert data from an array to the csv file as follows:

#Following is the array
$InventoryReport = New-Object -TypeName PSobject -Property @{
                        ComputerName = "1myComputerName"
                        DomainName = "2myComputerDomain"
                        Manufacturer = "3myComputerManufacturer"
}

#Now to export the data to csv, i am using following:
$InventoryReport |Select-Object -Property ComputerName, DomainName, Manufacturer | Export-Csv -Path "c:\abc.csv" -NoTypeInformation -ErrorAction Stop

#This works fine

and the output of above is :

"ComputerName","DomainName","Manufacturer" "1myComputerName","2myComputerDomain","3myComputerManufacturer"

.... Now, i don't want this , i want the ouput to appear in columnar fashion i.e.

"ComputerName","1myComputerName"
"DomainName","2myComputerDomain"
"Manufacturer","3myComputerManufacturer"

What code changes should be done to achieve this. ?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 5301

Answers (2)

Ansgar Wiechers
Ansgar Wiechers

Reputation: 200443

You could try something like this:

$InventoryReport | Format-List ComputerName, DomainName, Manufacturer `
  | Out-String -Stream `
  | ? { $_ -ne '' } `
  | % { $_ -replace '\s+:\s+', '","' -replace '(^|$)', '"' }

Upvotes: 1

Frode F.
Frode F.

Reputation: 54911

Either you want CSV, which you already have, or you want a custom txt-file. If you want the latter, try this:

$comp = gwmi win32_computersystem

@"
"ComputerName","$($comp.Name)"
"DomainName","$($comp.Domain)"
"Manufacturer","$($comp.Manufacturer)"
"@ | Out-File test.txt

sample of test.txt output below. I've got a non-domain, custom built pc, so don't worry about the values.

"ComputerName","GRAIMER-PC"
"DomainName","WORKGROUP"
"Manufacturer","System manufacturer"

EDIT I suggest you learn what CSV is. Remember that CSV is not a fileformat, it's a formatting-style used in a normal textfile. The .csv extension is just cosmetic to let people know that the textfile uses the csv-style. Check out Wikipedia and Technet

In the CSV file, each object is represented by a comma-separated list of the property values of the object. The property values are converted to strings (by using the ToString() method of the object), so they are generally represented by the name of the property value. Export-CSV does not export the methods of the object.

The format of an exported file is as follows:

-- The first line of the CSV file contains the string '#TYPE ' followed by the fully qualified name of the object, such as #TYPE System.Diagnostics.Process. To suppress this line, use the NoTypeInformation parameter.

-- The next line of the CSV file represents the column headers. It contains a comma-separated list of the names of all the properties of the first object.

-- Additional lines of the file consist of comma-separated lists of the property values of each object.

Upvotes: 1

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