CSV Output Unreadable - powershell

Question

I'm trying to export the results of this simple script to a .csv file. I get the results but it either returns information about data of the results or a long jumble of data I'm sure how to parse correctly.
<#
Will ping all devices in list and display results as a simple UP or DOWN, color coded Red or Green.
#>
$Names = Get-Content -Path "C:\TestFolder\GetNames.txt"
$Output = #()
foreach ($name in $names)
{
if (Test-Connection -ComputerName $name -Count 1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
{
$Result1 += "$name, up"
Write-Host "$name, up" -ForegroundColor Green
}
else
{
$Result2 += "$name, down"
Write-Host "$name, down" -ForegroundColor Red
}
}
$Output += $Result1, $Result2
$Output = $Output | Select-Object
$Output | Export-Csv -Path 'C:\psCSVFiles\mycsv.csv' -NoTypeInformation
Results of this return:
Length
49768
25081
What am I doing wrong here? Thanks

Answer 1

Don't attempt to "format" the output strings manually - Export-Csv will take care of that part.
What you want to do is create objects with properties corresponding to the columns you want in your CSV:
$Names = Get-Content -Path "C:\TestFolder\GetNames.txt"
$Output = foreach ($name in $names) {
# test if computer is reachable/pingable
$isUp = Test-Connection -ComputerName $name -Count 1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Quiet
# construct output object with results
[pscustomobject]#{
ComputerName = $name
Status = if($isUp){ 'Up' }else{ 'Down' }
}
}
# Export to CSV
$Output |Export-Csv -Path 'C:\psCSVFiles\mycsv.csv' -NoTypeInformation
Alternatively, use Select-Object to modify the input strings directly using the pipeline:
Get-Content -Path "C:\TestFolder\GetNames.txt" |Select #{Name='ComputerName';Expression={$_}},#{Name='Status';Expression={if(Test-Connection -ComputerName $_ -Count 1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Quiet){'Up'}else{'Down'}}} |Export-Csv -Path 'C:\psCSVFiles\mycsv.csv' -NoTypeInformation