CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
jat421
jat421

Reputation: 23

PowerShell add spaces at end of line

I have a text file with multiple lines and each line needs to be exactly 700 characters long. Below is what I have and for it to work I have to add spaces after $_ until the line is exactly 700 characters long. I'm wondering if there is way where I can specify a number and it uses that to add the number for spaces after each line?

get-content test.txt | ForEach-Object {Add-Content output.txt "$_ "}

Upvotes: 2

Views: 19953

Answers (1)

TravisEz13
TravisEz13

Reputation: 2403

Based on you question the result will have variable length lines with 700 additional (considering there already maybe spaces at the end) spaces at the end. Considering strings are immutable this will use a good bit a memory.

You should form you 700 space string and append it to each line.

Simple Example

$700spaces = ' ' * 700
get-content test.txt | ForEach-Object {$_ + $700spaces}

Updated sample based on comment that lines should be exactly 700 characters

get-content test.txt | ForEach-Object {Add-Content output.txt ($_ + ' ' * (700 - ($_.Length +1)))}

Reducing memory usage

Using a string builder would be more efficient. The result of this will be slightly different. It will be one string with [environment]::NewLine between lines. Where the first will be each line in a separate string.

string builder example

$sb = new-object -TypeName System.Text.StringBuilder
$700spaces = ' ' * 700
get-content test.txt | ForEach-Object {
    $sb.AppendFormat('{0}{1}',$_,$700spaces) > $null
    $sb.AppendLine([String]::empty) > $null
}
$sb.ToString()

Upvotes: 4

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