Is there a PowerShell Script that can Compare CSVs Side by Side? - powershell

Question

I have two CSVs with data populated from running a query. I intend to compare them both to see what are the differences using Compare-Object cmdlet.
The CSV files looks like this:
CSV1
TableName ColumnName
------------------------------
Container ContainerName
Container Location
Container ReceivedDate
Container TopMark
CSV2
TableName ColumnName
------------------------------
Container Containername
Container Location
Container DateReceived
Container BackMark
Right now, what I'm using is the Compare-Object cmdlet which is readily available in PowerShell. It runs great and I'm getting the results I wanted. However, the results might be difficult to understand for people who do not know how to read results generated by Compare-Object cmdlet. I've tried to simplify the results by comparing each of the properties but my end users somehow still don't understand the results. I even changed the SideIndicator to note if an object is existing on the Reference or Difference copy.
$compareResult = (Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $file1 -DifferenceObject $file2 -Property TableName, ColumnName |
ForEach-Object {
$_.SideIndicator = $_.SideIndicator -replace '=>',$onlyD -replace '<=',$onlsyG
$_
})
What they wanted to see is something like this:
LeftSideInputObject RightSideInputObject
-----------------------------------------------
Container,ContainerName Container,ContainerName
Container,Location Container,Location
Container,ReceivedDate
ContainerDateReceived
Container,TopMark
Container,BackMark
Is there by any chance that I can do this in PowerShell? Thank you!

Answer 1

You can use Select-Object to create a customized object.
Compare-Object $file1 $file2 -Property TableName,ColumnName -IncludeEqual | Select-Object #(
#{ n = "Left"; e = { if ($_.SideIndicator -in "==","<=") { $_.TableName,$_.ColumnName -join "," } } }
#{ n = "Right"; e = { if ($_.SideIndicator -in "==","=>") { $_.TableName,$_.ColumnName -join "," } } }
)

Answer 2

Check this:
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Collections
#-----------------------------------------------------
class comparerClass { # class for result object
#-----------------------------------------------------
comparerClass(
[string]$leftSide,
[string]$rightSide
)
{
$this.leftSide = $leftSide
$this.rightSide = $rightSide
}
[string]$leftSide = ''
[string]$rightSide = ''
}
# Collections: File1, File2 and result list
[System.Collections.Generic.List[string]]$contentFile1 = #()
[System.Collections.Generic.List[string]]$contentFile2 = #()
[System.Collections.Generic.List[comparerClass]]$comparerList= #()
# Files to process
$pathFile1 = 'D:\csv1.txt'
$pathFile2 = 'D:\csv2.txt'
# read files to generic lists
$contentFile1.AddRange( [System.IO.File]::ReadAllLines( $pathFile1 ) )
$contentFile2.AddRange( [System.IO.File]::ReadAllLines( $pathFile2 ) )
# pointer for generic lists
$ptrFile1 = 0
$ptrFile2 = 0
# process lists, mainloop
while( $ptrFile1 -lt $contentFile1.Count ) {
# equal, easy is this
if( $contentFile1[ $ptrFile1 ] -eq $contentFile2[ $ptrFile2 ] ) {
$tmpComparer = New-Object comparerClass -ArgumentList $contentFile1[ $ptrFile1 ], $contentFile2[ $ptrFile2 ]
$comparerList.Add( $tmpComparer )
$ptrFile1++
$ptrFile2++
}
else { # not equal, check if entry list 1 comes later in list 2
$ptr = $ptrFile2 + 1
$found = $false
while( $ptr -lt $contentFile2.Count ) {
if( $contentFile1[ $ptrFile1 ] -eq $contentFile2[ $ptr ] ) { # entry found later in list2!
for( $i = $ptrFile2; $i -lt $ptr; $i++ ) {
$tmpComparer = New-Object comparerClass -ArgumentList '', $contentFile2[ $i ]
$comparerList.Add( $tmpComparer )
}
$ptrFile2 = $ptr + 1
$found = $true
$ptrFile1++
break
}
$ptr++
}
if( !$found ) { # entry not found, this entry only exists in list1
$tmpComparer = New-Object comparerClass -ArgumentList $contentFile1[ $ptrFile1 ], ''
$comparerList.Add( $tmpComparer )
$ptrFile1++
}
}
}
# process remaining entries in list2
while( $ptrFile2 -lt $contentFile2.Count ) {
$tmpComparer = New-Object comparerClass -ArgumentList '', $contentFile2[ $ptrFile2 ]
$comparerList.Add( $tmpComparer )
$ptrFile2++
}
# show result
$comparerList