PowerShell Import-Csv Issue - Why is my output being treated as a single column and not a CSV? - powershell

Question

So I have a CSV file which I need to manipulate a bit, select the data I need and export to another CSV file.
The code I have is:
$rawCSV = "C:\Files\raw.csv"
$outputCSV = "C:\Files\output.csv"
Import-Csv -Header #("a","b","c","d") -Path $rawCSV |
select -Skip 7 |
Where-Object { $_.b.length -gt 1 } |
ft b,a,c,d |
Out-File $outputCSV
So this code uses the Import-Csv command to allow me to select just the columns I need, add some headers in the order I want and then I am simply putting the output in to a CSV file called $outputCSV. The contents of this output file look something like this:
b a c d
- - - -
john smith 29 England
mary poopins 79 Walton
I am not sure what the delimiter is in this output and rather than these columns being treated as individuals, they are treated as just one column. I have gone on further to replace all the spaces with a comma using the code:
$b = foreach ($line in $a)
{
$fields = $line -split '`n'
foreach ($field in $fields)
{
$field -replace " +",","
}
}
Which produces a file that looks like this:
b,a,c,d
john,smith,29,England
mary,poppins,79,Walton
But these are all still treated as one column instead of four separate columns as I need.
* UPDATE *
Using the answer given by #, I now get a file looking like this:

Answer 1

Don't use ft to reorder your columns - it's intended to format output for the screen, not really suitable for CSV.
"Manual" solution:
$rawCSV = "C:\Files\raw.csv"
$outputCSV = "C:\Files\output.csv"
# Import and filter your raw data
$RawData = Import-Csv -Header #("a","b","c","d") -Path $rawCSV
$Data = $RawData | Select -Skip 7 | Where-Object { $_.b.length -gt 1 }
# Write your headers to the output file
"b","a","c","d" -join ',' | Out-File $outputCSV -Force
$ReorderedData = foreach($Row in $Data){
# Reorder the columns in each row
'{0},{1},{2},{3}' -f $Row.b , $Row.a , $Row.c, $Row.d
}
# Write the reordered rows to the output file
$ReorderedData | Out-File $outputCSV -Append
Using Export-Csv:
As of PowerShell 3.0, you could also push the rows into a [pscustomobject] and pipe that to Export-Csv (pscustomobject preserves the order in which you supply the properties):
$rawCSV = "C:\Files\raw.csv"
$outputCSV = "C:\Files\output.csv"
# Import and filter your raw data
$RawData = Import-Csv -Header #("a","b","c","d") -Path $rawCSV
$Data = $RawData | Select -Skip 7 | Where-Object { $_.b.length -gt 1 }
# Take the columns you're interested in, put them into new custom objects and export to CSV
$Data | ForEach-Object {
[pscustomobject]#{ "b" = $_.b; "a" = $_.a; "c" = $_.c; "d" = $_.d }
} | Export-Csv -NoTypeInformation $outputCSV
Export-Csv will take care of enclosing strings in quotes to escape ',' properly (one thing less for you to worry about)

Answer 2

First of all, what your raw CSV file looks like? If it's already like this
john,smith,29,England
mary,poppins,79,Walton
then import-csv will give you an array of objects which you can easily manipulate (and objects are the main reason to use PowerShell ;). For example, to check what you have after import:
$r = Import-Csv -Path $rawCSV -Header #("b","a","c","d")
$r.GetType()
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
True True Object[] System.Array
$r[0] | get-member
TypeName: System.Management.Automation.PSCustomObject
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
ToString Method string ToString()
a NoteProperty System.String a=smith
b NoteProperty System.String b=john
c NoteProperty System.String c=29
d NoteProperty System.String d=England
For now you have array of objects with properties named "a","b","c","d". To manipulate objects you have select-object cmdlet:
$r | Select-Object a,b,c,d
a b c d
- - - -
smith john 29 England
poppins mary 79 Walton
And after all use export-csv to set the output file:
$r | where { $_.b.length -gt 1 } |
select a,b,c,d |
Export-Csv -NoTypeInformation -Encoding utf8 -path $outputCSV
I could think of two possible reasons why your data teated as one column:
consuming application expect different encoding and can't find
delimiters
delimiters are not commas but something else