Import Excel data into PowerShell variables - powershell

Question

I have an Excel File which has an unknown number of records in it, and these 3 columns:
Variable Name, Store Number, Email Address
I use this in QlikView to import data for certain stores and then create a separate report for each store in the list. I then need to email each report to each individual store (store number will be in the report file name).
So in PowerShell I would like to read the Excel File and set variables for each store:
$Store1 = The Store Number in Row 2 of the Excel File
$Store1Email = The Store Email in Row 2 of the Excel File
$Store2 = The Store Number in Row 3 of the Excel File
$Store2Email = The Store Email in Row 3 of the Excel File
etc. for each Storein the file (can be any number of stores).
Please note the "Variable Name" in the excel file must be ignored (that is for QLikView) and the PowerShell variables must be named as per my above examples, each time incrementing the number.

Answer 1

Check out my PowerShell Excel Module on Github. You can also grab it from the PowerShell Gallery.
$stores = Import-Excel C:\Temp\store.xlsx
$stores[2].Name
$stores[2].StoreNumber
$stores[2].EmailAddress
''
'All stores'
'----------'
$stores

Answer 2

Ok, first off if you are going to be working with actual .XLS or .XLSX or .XLSM files I would highly suggest using the Import-XLS function from the TechNet gallery (found here).
After that, just reference the object it imports to send the emails instead of making objects for each store. Such as:
$StoreList = Import-XLS <path to Excel file>
GC <report folder> | %{
$Current = $_
$Store = $StoreList|?{$_.StoreNumber -match $Current.BaseName}|Select -ExpandProperty StoreNumber
$Email = $StoreList|?{$_.StoreNumber -match $Current.BaseName}|Select -ExpandProperty StoreEmail
<code to send $Current to $Email>
}

Answer 3

My preference is to Save-As the Excel file to a '.csv' type. The comma separated value can easily be imported into PowerShell.
$csvFile = Import-Csv -Path c:\scripts\temp\excelFile.csv
#now the entire Excel '.csv' file is saved into csvFile variable
$csvFile |Get-Member
#look at the properties
Remember to study the greats so your PowerShell script looks great. Jeffery Snover, Jason Hicks, Don Jones, Ashley McGlone, and anyone on their friends list ha ha

Answer 4

The above answers usually work, but I just had a project with excel datasheets that caused some problems.
edit: Here's a much more advanced version that will pull it into an object, can handle blank and duplicate column names, and can skip human information at the beginning of the worksheet by looking for something in the header row. I've also included some example usages
Your example:
$file = New-Module -AsCustomObject -ScriptBlock $file_template
$file.from_excel("c:\folder\file.xls")
$Store1 = $file.data[0]."Store Number" #first row, column named "Store Number"
$Store1Email = $file.data[0]."Store Email" #first row, column named "Store Email"
foreach ($row in $file.data)
{
write-host "Store: $($row."Store Number")"
write-host "Store Email: $($row."Store Email")"
}
Example 1:
# Simplest example
$file = New-Module -AsCustomObject -ScriptBlock $file_template
$file.from_excel("c:\folder\file.xls")
$file.data[0]
Example 2:
#advanced usage
$file = New-Module -AsCustomObject -ScriptBlock $file_template
$file.header_contains="First Name" # if included it will drop everything before the first line that contains this, useful if there are instructions for humans in the worksheet
$file.indexer_column = 5 # Default: 1 (first column); This column's contents will set the minimum number of rows, use if there are blank rows in your file but more data after them
$file.worksheet_index = "January" # Default: 1; can be a sheet index or sheet name
$file.filename = "c:\folder\file.xls" #can set this independently, useful for validation and troubleshooting
$file.from_excel() #This is where we actually pull from excel
$collected = $file.data|ogv -pass thru #this is a neat way to select some rows you want
$file.headers.count # It stores an array of the headers here, useful for troubleshooting and advanced logic
Excel Reader pseudoclass
$file_template = {
# -- universal --
$filename = ""
$delimiter = ","
$headers = #()
$data = #()
# -- used by some functions --
# we put these here to allow assigning them before calling functions, which improves readability and auditability
$header_contains=""
$indexer_column=1
$worksheet_index=1
function from_excel(
$filename=$this.filename,
$worksheet_index=$this.worksheet_index
)`
{
$this.filename = $filename
$this.worksheet_index = $worksheet_index
$data_by_row = $this.from_excel_as_csv() # $data_by_row = $file.from_excel_as_csv($test_file)
$data_by_row = $data_by_row -split"`n"
#if ($this.headers.count -lt 1) {$this.headers = $data_by_row[0] -split $this.delimiter} #this would let us set headers elsewhere which is more flexible but less adaptive, Because columns change unpredicably we need something more adaptive
$temp_headers = $data_by_row[0] -split $this.delimiter
$temp_headers = $this.fix_blank_headers($temp_headers)
$this.headers = $this.dedupe_headers($temp_headers)
$this.data = $data_by_row|select -Skip 1|ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $this.headers -Delimiter $this.delimiter
}
function from_csv($filename=$this.filename)`
{
$this.filename = $filename
$this.headers = (Get-Content $this.filename -ReadCount 1|select -first 1) -split $this.delimiter
$this.data = Get-Content $this.filename|ConvertFrom-Csv -Delimiter $this.delimiter
}
function from_excel_as_csv(
$filename=$this.filename,
$worksheet_index=$this.worksheet_index
)`
{
$this.filename = $filename
$this.worksheet_index = $worksheet_index
#set up excel
Write-Host "Importing from excel, this may take a little while..."
$excel = New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application
$excel.DisplayAlerts = $false
$excel.Visible = $false
$workbook = $excel.workbooks.open($this.filename)
$worksheet = $workbook.Worksheets.Item($this.worksheet_index)
#import from excel
try{
$data_by_row = ""
$indexed_column = $worksheet.columns.item($this.indexer_column).value2 #we use this to work around some files having headers with blank space
$minimum_rows = (($indexed_column -join "◘").TrimEnd("◘") -split "◘").count # This Strips the million or so extra blank rows excel appends to get a realistic column length.
[bool]$header_found = 0
$i=1
do `
{
$row = $worksheet.rows.item($i).value2
$row_as_text = $row -join "◘" # ◘ (alt+8) is just a placeholder that's unlikely to show up in the text
$row_as_text = $row_as_text -replace $this.delimiter,"."
$row_as_text = $row_as_text.TrimEnd("◘")
$row_as_text = $row_as_text -replace "◘",$this.delimiter
if ($row_as_text -like "*$($this.header_contains)*"){[bool]$header_found=1}
if ($header_found) {$data_by_row+="$row_as_text`n"}
$i++
}
while ( ($row_as_text.Length -gt 1) -or ($i -lt $minimum_rows) )
}
catch {Write-Warning "ERROR Importing from excel"}
#close excel
$workbook.Close()
$excel.Quit()
write-host "Done importing from excel"
return $data_by_row
}
function dedupe_headers($headers){
$dupes = ($headers|group)|?{$_.count -gt 1}
if ($dupes.count -ge 1)
{
foreach ($dupe in $dupes)
{ #$dupe = $dupes[0]
$i=1
$new_headers = #()
foreach ($header in $headers)
{ #$header = $headers[0]
if ($header -eq $dupe.name)
{
$header = "$($header)_$($i)" # "header_#"
$i++
}
$new_headers += $header
}
}
}
else {$new_headers = $headers} # no duplicates found
return $new_headers
}
function fix_blank_headers($headers)
{
$replace_blanks_with = "_"
$new_headers = #()
foreach ($header in $headers)
{
if ($header -eq "") {$new_headers += $replace_blanks_with}
else {$new_headers += $header}
}
if ($new_headers.count -ne $header)
{
$error_json = #($headers),#($new_headers)|ConvertTo-Json -Compress
Write-Error "Error when fixing blank headers, original and new counts are different $($error_json)"
}
return $new_headers
}
<# function some_function($some_parameter){return $some_parameter} #>
Export-ModuleMember -Function * -Variable *
}

Answer 5

Forgive the ugliness here. I am not a programmer, so there are undoubtedly more optimized ways to do this, as well as better formatting. It will work, however, if I understand your requirements correctly.
$excelfile = import-csv "c:\myfile.csv"
$i = 1
$excelfile | ForEach-Object {
New-Variable "Store$i" $_."Store Number"
$iemail = $i.ToString() + "Email"
New-Variable "Store$iemail" $_."Email Address"
$i ++
}
edit: as per the reply to your original post, this works with a csv file. Just save it to csv first if necessary.

Answer 6

$excelfile = import-csv "C:\Temp\store.csv"
$i = 1 $excelfile | ForEach-Object {
$NA= $_."Name"
$SN= $_."StoreNumber"
Write-Output "row $i"
$NA
$SN
$i++ }