Powershell Convert a string to datatable - powershell

Question

I have the below string which is returned from an Invoke-RestMethod call. How can I transform the results into an object or data table to be able to use it? The first row would be the properties.
I tried the Out-File and Export-CSV first but the only length is added to the file.
Then I tried the format table which did nothing.
Any ideas?
Name,Main No, Sec No
Alex,34.6743,22.7800
Tom,33.8798,21.9098
Tim,34.6743,41.7800
Mark,33.8798,21.9098

Answer 1

The ConvertFrom-Csv cmdlet is smart enough to exclude the empty lines we see in your example.
To output as CSV, simply use:
$data | ConvertFrom-Csv
#output to csv file:
$data | ConvertFrom-Csv | Export-Csv -Path 'D:\test.csv' -NoTypeInformation
Your CSV file will look like this:
"Name","Main No","Sec No"
"Alex","34.6743","22.7800"
"Tom","33.8798","21.9098 "
"Tim","34.6743","41.7800"
"Mark","33.8798","21.9098"
If you want it converted to datatable, you can use below function:
function ConvertTo-DataTable {
[CmdletBinding()]
Param(
[Parameter(Position=0, Mandatory=$true, ValueFromPipeline = $true)]
[PSObject[]]$InputObject
)
Begin {
$dataTable = New-Object System.Data.DataTable
$first = $true
function _GetSafeTypeName($type) {
# internal helper function to return the correct typename for a datatable
$types = #('System.Boolean', 'System.Byte', 'System.SByte', 'System.Char', 'System.Datetime',
'System.TimeSpan', 'System.Decimal', 'System.Double', 'System.Guid', 'System.Single')
$ints = #('System.Int16', 'System.Int32', 'System.Int64')
$uints = #('System.UInt16', 'System.UInt32', 'System.UInt64')
if ($types -contains $type) { return "$type" }
# if the type is Int or UInt, always return the largest variety
if ($ints -contains $type) { return 'System.Int64' }
if ($uints -contains $type) { return 'System.UInt64' }
return 'System.String'
}
}
Process {
foreach ($object in $InputObject) {
$dataRow = $dataTable.NewRow()
foreach($property in $object.PSObject.Properties) {
# read the data type for this property and make sure it is a valid type for a DataTable
$dataType = _GetSafeTypeName $property.TypeNameOfValue
# ensure the property name does not contain invalid characters
$propertyName = $property.Name -replace '[\W\p{Pc}-[,]]', '_' -replace '_+', '_'
if ($first) {
$dataColumn = New-Object System.Data.DataColumn $propertyName, $dataType
$dataTable.Columns.Add($dataColumn)
}
if ($property.Gettype().IsArray -or ($property.TypeNameOfValue -like '*collection*')) {
$dataRow.Item($propertyName) = $property.Value | ConvertTo-XML -As String -NoTypeInformation -Depth 1
}
else {
$value = if ($null -ne $property.Value) { $property.Value } else { [System.DBNull]::Value }
$dataRow.Item($propertyName) = $value -as $dataType
}
}
$dataTable.Rows.Add($dataRow)
$first = $false
}
}
End {
Write-Output #(,($dataTable))
}
}
Then use it like this:
$data | ConvertFrom-Csv | ConvertTo-DataTable
P.S. $data is the result of your Invoke-RestMethod call.