How can I copy a column value from excel to txt file - powershell

Question

I'm new to Power shell. I have a number of excel files (500+) having a column Animal Count that I would like to save in a new '.txt' file. Can any one give me tips to achieve this.

Answer 1

Looking at the image you provided, The count value is not in a column called 'Animal count', but in the column next to a label with that text.
As for the type of output, I would recommend not to use a .txt file, but output the found info as CSV file to be abe to keep the file names and the animal count values in a structured way.
Try:
$Source = 'D:\Test' # the path to where the Excel files are
# create an Excel COM object
$excel = New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application
# find Excel files in the Source path and loop through.
# you may want to add the -Recurse switch here if the code should also look inside subfolders
$result = Get-ChildItem -Path $Source -Filter '*.xlsx' -File | ForEach-Object {
$workBook = $excel.Workbooks.Open($_.FullName)
$workSheet = $Workbook.Sheets.Item(1)
$count = 0
$label = $WorkSheet.Cells.Find('*Animal count*')
if ($label) {
# get the numeric value for the cell next to the label
# empty cells will translate to 0
$count = [int]$workSheet.Cells.Item($label.Row, $label.Column + 1).Value()
}
# output a PSObject with the full filename and the animal count value
[PsCustomObject] #{
'File' = $_.FullName
'AnimalCount' = $count
}
$workBook.Close()
}
# quit Excel and clean up the used COM objects
$excel.Quit()
[System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($workSheet) | Out-Null
[System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($workBook) | Out-Null
[System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($excel) | Out-Null
[System.GC]::Collect()
[System.GC]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()
# output on screen
$result | Format-Table -AutoSize
#output to CSV file
$result | Export-Csv -Path 'D:\Test\AnimalCount.csv' -UseCulture -NoTypeInformation
The result on screen wil look something like this:
File AnimalCount
---- -----------
D:\Test\File1.xlsx 165
D:\Test\File2.xlsx 0
D:\Test\File3.xlsx 87596
Edit
Since you've commented the labels are in Merged cells, you need to use this to find the value for Animal count:
$label = $workSheet.Range('$A:$B').Find('*Animal count*')
if ($label) {
# get the numeric value for the cell next to the label
# empty cells will translate to 0
$count = [int]$workSheet.Cells.Item($label.Row, $label.Column + 2).Value()
}
That is assuming there are two cells merged into one.
P.S. If the animal count value can ever exceed 2147483647, cast to [int64] instead of [int]

Answer 2

You could use Import-Csv to turn the excel file into a PS object, and the columns would be the new object's properties.
$excel = Import-Csv $excelPath
$excel.Animals | out-file $txtPath

Answer 3

Try this this is for 1 file save to txt same name.
this can you done for more file's with foreach options
$FileName = "C:\temp\test.xlsx"
$Excel = New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application
$Excel.visible = $false
$Excel.DisplayAlerts = $false
$WorkBook = $Excel.Workbooks.Open($FileName)
$NewFilePath = [System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($FileName,".txt")
$Workbook.SaveAs($NewFilepath, 42) # xlUnicodeText
# cleanup
$Excel.Quit()
[System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($WorkBook) | Out-Null
[System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($Excel) | Out-Null
[System.GC]::Collect()
[System.GC]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()