How to output jagged noteproperty values using Export-csv powershell - powershell

Question

I wrote a function that parses out the folder names for files and stores them as note properties for each individual folder encountered, so directory(n) = direcory1, directoryn+1= directory2 etc... So for each file the directory(s) will be various lengths depending on where the file is in the directory structure.
The problem that I am facing is how to output the jagged directory results in column format using Export-csv combined with other static property values, since the noteproperty lengths will vary from file to file (Jagged) I am struggling to figure out the logic to try and output in csv format the directory's in column format.
The output should have headers like the following:
Example File1
Directory 1, Directory 2, Directory 3, Other properties
Directory Value 1, Directory Value 2, Directory value 3
File2
Directory 1, Directory 2, Directory 3, Directory 4
Directory value 1, Directory value 2, Directory 3, Directory 4
function Get-Folder ($Files)
{
foreach ($file in $Files)
{
$TotalDirLvl = ($file.FullName.Split('\').count)-1
$x =0
While($x -lt $TotalDirLvl){
$file|Add-Member -NotePropertyName Directory$x -NotepropertyValue
$file.FullName.Split('\')[$x]
$x++
}
}
Return $Files
}

Answer 1

You need to know how many directories will be in the tree that you export so that you can create the proper number of properties on your object that you Export-CSV or your csv file will not have properties "to the right" of first row. IE file 2 in your example would have Directory 1..3, but not 4. The way I did this is by looping over the files twice. The first time gets the max depth you will traverse, and the second time constructs a psobject and adds it to a array to be written to an csv file at the end.
For files that have fewer path segments than your maximum path segment, you need to specify an empty or null value for the segments that are not filled. Also, if you want to include other properties you should probably do it to the left of this directory tree. If you do not want a property for a given file, you still need to pass a null/blank value into your object's property or else.
The script below creates a csv file like:
from a directory structure that you explain in your post.
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path "$env:temp\SO" -Recurse | where { ! $_.PSIsContainer }
$outObjs = #()
$maxDepth = 0
foreach ($file in $files) {
$TotalDirLvl = ($file.FullName.Split('\').count)-1
if ($TotalDirLvl -gt $maxDepth){
$maxDepth = $TotalDirLvl
}
}
foreach($file in $files){
$outObj = New-Object PSObject
$fileDepth = ($file.FullName.Split('\').count)-1
$outObj | Add-Member -NotePropertyName DirectoryDepth -NotepropertyValue $fileDepth
$x = 0
#Add other properties for each file here to the left of your directory tree
While($x -le $maxDepth)
{
if ($x -gt $fileDepth){
$value = ''
}
else{
$value = $file.FullName.Split('\')[$x]
}
$outObj | Add-Member -NotePropertyName "Directory$x" -NotepropertyValue $value
$x++
}
$outOBjs += $outObj
}
$outOBjs | Export-Csv -Path "$env:temp\SO\test.csv" -NoTypeInformation -Force