is there a simple way to output to xlsx? - powershell

Question

I am trying to output a query from a DB to a xlsx but it takes so much time to do this because there about 20,000 records to process, is there a simpler way to do this?
I know there is a way to do it for csv but im trying to avoid that, because if the records had any comma is going to take it as a another column and that would mess with the info
this is my code
$xlsObj = New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application
$xlsObj.DisplayAlerts = $false
$xlsWb = $xlsobj.Workbooks.Add(1)
$xlsObj.Visible = 0 #(visible = 1 / 0 no visible)
$xlsSh = $xlsWb.Worksheets.Add([System.Reflection.Missing]::Value, $xlsWb.Worksheets.Item($xlsWb.Worksheets.Count))
$xlsSh.Name = "QueryResults"
$DataSetTable= $ds.Tables[0]
Write-Output "DATA SET TABLE" $DataSetTable
[Array] $getColumnNames = $DataSetTable.Columns | SELECT *
Write-Output "COLUMN NAMES" $DataSetTable.Rows[0]
[Int] $RowHeader = 1
foreach ($ColH in $getColumnNames)
{
$xlsSh.Cells.item(1, $RowHeader).font.bold = $true
$xlsSh.Cells.item(1, $RowHeader) = $ColH.ColumnName
Write-Output "Nombre de Columna"$ColH.ColumnName
$RowHeader++
}
[Int] $rowData = 2
[Int] $colData = 1
foreach ($rec in $DataSetTable.Rows)
{
foreach ($Coln in $getColumnNames)
{
$xlsSh.Cells.NumberFormat = "#"
$xlsSh.Cells.Item($rowData, $colData) = $rec.$($Coln.ColumnName).ToString()
$ColData++
}
$rowData++; $ColData = 1
}
$xlsRng = $xlsSH.usedRange
[void] $xlsRng.EntireColumn.AutoFit()
#Se elimina la pestaña Sheet1/Hoja1.
$xlsWb.Sheets(1).Delete() #Versión 02
$xlsFile = "directory of the file"
[void] $xlsObj.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs($xlsFile)
$xlsObj.Quit()
Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 700
While ([System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($xlsRng)) {''}
While ([System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($xlsSh)) {''}
While ([System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($xlsWb)) {''}
While ([System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($xlsObj)) {''}
[gc]::collect() | Out-Null
[gc]::WaitForPendingFinalizers() | Out-Null
$oraConn.Close()

Answer 1

I'm trying to avoid [CSV files], because if the records had any comma is going to take it as a another column and that would mess with the info
That's only the case if you try to construct the output format manually. Builtin commands like Export-Csv and ConvertTo-Json will automatically quote the values as necessary:
PS C:\> $customObject = [pscustomobject]#{ID = 1; Name = "Solis, Heber"}
PS C:\> $customObject
ID Name
-- ----
1 Solis, Heber
PS C:\> $customObject |ConvertTo-Csv -NoTypeInformation
"ID","Name"
"1","Solis, Heber"
Notice, in the example above, how:
The string value assigned to $customObject.Name does not contain any quotation marks, but
In the output from ConvertTo-Csv we see values and headers clearly enclosed in quotation marks
PowerShell automatically enumerates the row data when you pipe a [DataTable] instance, so creating a CSV might (depending on the contents) be as simple as:
$ds.Tables[0] |Export-Csv table_out.csv -NoTypeInformation
What if you want TAB-separated values (or any other non-comma separator)?
The *-Csv commands come with a -Delimiter parameter to which you can pass a user-defined separator:
# This produces semicolon-separated values
$data |Export-Csv -Path output.csv -Delimiter ';'
I usually try and refrain from recommending specific modules libraries, but if you insist on writing to XSLX I'd suggest checking out ImportExcel (don't let the name fool you, it does more than import from excel, including exporting and formatting data from PowerShell -> XSLX)