Splitting values into two columns powershell csv file - powershell

Question

I have a PowerShell script that creates a csv file and neatly separates all user input. I need the remaining output to be split across the two headers and I'm struggling to find out how. Tried lots of different code but had no luck.
$Devices = read-host -Prompt "Enter Full Device Name" | out-file 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv' -Force
$Find = ", "
$Replace = "`n"
$Arrange = (Get-Content 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv') -replace "$Find","$Replace" | Set-Content 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv' -Force
$CSV = import-csv 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv' -Header "Firstname","Lastname"
$CSV | Export-Csv -NoTypeInformation 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv'
$import = Import-Csv 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv'
This is the output I currently have in the CSV:
This is the output I am after:
Could almost do with a foreach loop as the first and last names are likely to change as these are inputted using a variable
any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Export-Csv exports 1 column per distinct property of the input - so to get 2 columns, you need to pipe an object with 2 properties to Export-Csv.
# read device names, split into individual strings
$devices = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter Full Device Name(s)"
$devices = $devices -split ',\s*' |ForEach-Object Trim
# now create one object per device name
$records = $devices |ForEach-Object {
# start by splitting the string into 2 on the first `-`
$FirstName,$LastName = $_ -split '-',2
# now create the object
[pscustomobject]#{
FirstName = $FirstName
LastName = $LastName
}
}
# ... and finally, export to CSV
$records |Export-Csv 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv' -NoTypeInformation
If you want to retain the - as part of the FirstName value, change this line:
$FirstName,$LastName = $_ -split '-',2
to:
$FirstName,$LastName = $_ -split '(?<=-)',2

Answer 2

Try this out. Since I don't know what your input file looks like there might be some redundant steps in there. Feel free to modify the code to remove any redundant lines if you feel like.
$Devices = read-host -Prompt "Enter Full Device Name" | out-file 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv' -Force
$Find = ", "
$Replace = "`n"
$Arrange = (Get-Content 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv') -replace "$Find","$Replace" | Set-Content 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv' -Force
$CSV = import-csv 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv' -Header "Firstname","Lastname"
$X = $CSV | select -Skip 1
$y = $x -replace '-','-,' # this adds a comma so that the values are in different columns
$y | Export-Csv -NoTypeInformation 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv'
$import = Import-Csv 'C:\Users\Public\Desktop\Devices.csv' -Header "Firstname","Lastname"